Andre Agassi entered the charter school industry in Las Vegas, where he opened his own charter school. After many setbacks and high staff turnover, his school landed on the state’s list of low-performing schools and was turned over to another charter operator. Agassi decided he was in the wrong end of the business.
Agassi joined a partnership with an investor to build charter schools, and they struck gold.
Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities sold the Franklin Academy at 5000 Southwest 207th Terrace in Pembroke Pines for $60.5 million to Erudite Properties, led by Scott Sznitken, Executive Director of Florida Charter Foundation, records show…
Turner-Agassi bought the property in 2015 for $10.1 million. The K-12 school was constructed in 2016. In total, the campus spans 40 acres, according to its website.
Turner-Agassi’s strategy is to act as a “bridge developer” for charter schools, fronting the cost for site selection and construction and then leasing the property to a charter school operator. The group then sells the property to the charter operator once it reaches its enrollment goal, according to Turner-Agassi’s website.
The strategy has proven successful in the past. In 2016, Turner-Agassi sold a Boynton Beach charter school for $22.3 million. The same year it also sold Franklin Academy in Cooper City for $20 million.
Turner-Agassi has developed 96 schools serving 48,976 students across the country. The fund plans to invest an additional $500 million to develop 65 more schools serving another 25,000 students, according to its website.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
SICKENING.
What is most sickening of all is that in some places, public school districts are forced to just give school property to charters, which turn around and sell it when they inevitably close.
Also, i would actually like to know the details of Agassi’s business relationship with the charter operators he leases to. Are any of the operators benefitting from Agassi’s end of the deal?
The latter is a perfectly legitimate question to be asking because if they are benefitting, that would amount to self dealing.
“Anyone can open a Charter” (and
does)
Start a charter, anyone can
Even a former tennis man.
Football pros are welcome too
Cuz charter is a cinch to do
But at least Agassi is not “Self-dealing” the way some charter operators do (That would require that he be in cahoots with the charter operators he is leasing to and the quoted text does not imply he is)
“Charteracketeering”
One hand pays
The other grabs
Charter ways
To launder cash:
Rent to self
At sky-high rate
Accrue the wealth
For later date
Agassi is a high school dropout.
Sheesh.
Yes, but he can hit a little ball over a net and look really cool when he does it.
So that makes up for it.
He nevertheless obviously learned how to play the game.
And I’m not talking about tennis.
I’m with Yvonne. Agassi is a poster boy for “what’s wrong with privatizing education.” CBK
Charter schools and developers go hand in hand in many cities. In some cases as in Philly the developer also owns the charter school. The cozy arrangement enables maximum social engineering and profit. By creating a fancy charter school for mostly white students, the developer can drive up the value of the surrounding real estate. A selective school can control the enrollment at the school which will influence the value of the properties in the neighborhood. Agassi uses his name a recognition to enroll students and drive up the perceived value of the school that can be sold for a high ROI. It is a cozy profiteering relationship.
retired teacher I’d like to recall a prior note where, in such situations, the “chain of responsibility” points to our local, state, and/or federal lawmakers, and to the laws governing the activities of lobbyists.
That is, insofar as our lawmakers are (a) oblivious to the situation, they should not be, precisely because it reeks of corruption: of the relationship between public taxes and private self-serving capitalists.
If so, then the only other lawmaker alternatives are that they are, (b) ignoring the corruption, while holding their noses for any number of “reasons,” or (c) they are fully complicit in that corruption.
Do someone tell me if there is another way to look at it. I suppose, following Trumpism, they are indeed corrupt, but it doesn’t matter. CBK
Both (b) and (c) describe a lot of the state legislators in Florida. Some of them are invested in charters, and others are right wing ideologues that believe the public schools are too secular and/or liberal.
I was in Washington DC a few Days ago and was astonished by the dramatic increase in gentrification. Fabulous high rises and high end restaurants and shops. Where did the original inhabitants go?
Same thing has happened to New Orleans.
And some of it was “by design” after Katrina.
“New Orleans neighborhoods that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were more likely to gentrify over the following 10 years, researchers find.”
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/02/gentrification-causes-new-orleans-natural-disasters-hurricane-katrina/582499/
Never miss a chance to take advantage of a crisis” as Rahm Imannuel put it.
The business model is not limited to charter schools. It has plans for “low income housing” rental, middle class, with professionals offering services for free, when they are not otherwise getting paid for their work. From the website :
There are celebrity housing projects too!!!!
“The Turner Multifamily Impact Fund acquires multifamily apartment communities in densely populated, diverse communities. Traditional real estate investors would come in, upgrade features like appliances and countertops, and then increase rent levels. That’s not what we do. We preserve affordability and then we enrich the community through targeted resident services. For example, we provide discounted rent to a teacher who lives on the property who organizes free after-school tutoring classes to resident students. Those working in the health-care industry spend time running vaccine clinics, providing health screenings or delivering health education. Resident police officers organize a neighborhood watch program and park their squad car in a visible spot, which makes the entire community more secure.
These kinds of innovative services reduce turnover and vacancies, increase pride of rentership and improve quality life for residents. Resident satisfaction has risen to above 94 percent, so we know it’s working. It’s a great example of our “profits with a purpose” model at work.”
So the communities thrive if the residents boost the profits of the landlords and if the renters have professional skills that can be enlisted for after-work jobs “suggested” by the management. This is what the profiteers view as community building and “impact investing.”
In Chile the water system is now privatized. Big corporations get access to the water supply, but it is becoming harder for small farmers to access water. People are marching in the streets, but protests have not worked. Some things should not be privatized, and basic necessities like water are one of them. We must never let this to happen in this country. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/sep/15/chile-santiago-water-supply-drought-climate-change-privatisation-neoliberalism-human-right
Retired teacher: Why do I think access to water is the next thing we’re going to have to defend. CBK