A few days ago, Carol Burris and Marla Kilfoyle of the Network for Public Education wrote an article in Valerie Strauss’s “Answer Sheet” about the charter schools that are claiming federal funds designated for small businesses, thwarting the intention of the legislators. Public schools are not eligible for the PPP relief funds, but—presto chango—the money-hungry charters decided they are not public schools after all, they are really small businesses. Next week, they will again claim to be public schools, not small businesses.
Congress created the Payroll Protection Plan to aid small businesses that were at risk of bankruptcy because of losing all their revenue. For many of these small businesses, a federal grant of $25,000-$50,000 would enable them to survive the shutdown. Think of the restaurants, toy stores, stationery shops, barber shops, hair dressers, shoe stores, florists, that will never open again. They did not get federal aid. But some greedy charter schools have taken advantage of PPP, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars even though they have not lost a penny of revenue.
It’s not easy to identify the charter schools that took money that was supposed to go to endangered small businesses. They must know it’s wrong, because they try to hide their windfall.
For taking money that should have gone to small businesses, for pretending to be small businesses, for hypocritically claiming to be public schools while applying for funding as small businesses, I place these charter operators on the blog’s Wall of Shame.
Carol Burris continues to learn about charter schools that applied for and received federal PPP funding, despite their lack of need. She writes about them here:
Americans were outraged when big companies with more than 500 employees cashed in on PPP loans intended to help small businesses. For example, the Washington Post reported that various hotel companies all chaired by Republican donor Monty Bennett submitted more than 100 filings to seek $126 million. By creating individual filings, they were able to get around the 500 employee cap. The hotel chain got $76 million in the end.
Now it appears that the Mastery Charter chain is using the same tactic to cash in on payment protection plan loans (PPP) loans.
Each school in the chain has its own board; however all are under the direction of one CEO, Scott Gordon, who received a 2017 salary in excess of $300,000.
According to the Mastery website, the chain has over 1700 employees. What, then, does the Mastery charter chain do? It has each of its individual schools apply for a PPP loan.
See for yourself by reading their board minutes here and here. Notice each charter school in the chain, with the exception of the Camden school, is having its own board meeting at the same group meeting at the same time. And every one of the schools in the chain is applying for the SBA PPP funding.
Meanwhile, the unemployment system of the state of Pennsylvania is crashing from the flood of claims. And Mastery Charter Schools are still amply funded by federal, state and local tax dollars, as well as receiving public school funding in the CARES Act.
Mastery likes to call itself a public school district. So why is it seeking advantage with PPP loans at the expense of Philadelphia’s small businesses that have no revenue stream at all?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The fact that charter schools are joining in on the looting of the treasury indicates that they are politically connected to the power structure. Otherwise, they would had to get in a line with the mom and pop shops that were ignored when money was doled out. According to David Sirota, a political operative with the Sanders campaign, the corporate Democrats are a big part of the problem. They feign resistance when the cameras are rolling. Behind the scenes they collude with the conservatives. Sirota maintains that if the Democrats wanted the money to go to mom and pop, they would have fought for language in the bill that would blocked corporate looting. Democrats did not defend mom and pop shops just like they have hardly defended public education. The economic reality is that the corporate Democrats have more in common with conservatives than the progressive wing of their own party. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/26/democrats-trump-corporate-counter-revolution
I grew up hearing the red-necks complaining about abuses in the welfare system. These comments were, of course, oozing racism and classism. The same people would call a businessman who looted the federal programs “shrewd,” a compliment unless the adjective was applied to Jewish people, then it was meant as a disparagement. To an old farmer, I would like to suggest that a pig with his snout in the trough is feeding, whomever he is.
Since the chains of Gulen schools make them one of the biggest providers of charter schools in the country, they are likely to be one of the biggest recipients. Is it known how many of the charters that are getting this money are Gulen [Concept, Harmony, etc.]? I don’t subscribe to WaPo, so didn’t read the original column. Too bad that Dan Mihalopoulos is now with a local public radio station and no longer with the Chicago Sun Times where he did his fantastic series on the FBI raids on the Concept Gulen charters and the FBI raids.
Frances,
I posted the WaPo article in full on my blog a few days ago. It is linked here.
“Notice each charter school in the chain, with the exception of the Camden school, is having its own board meeting at the same group meeting at the same time. And every one of the schools in the chain is applying for the SBA PPP funding.”
This is an amazing scheme, and it may be of help in the larger project of figuring out which charter schools are raking in PPP money. I spent about half a day trying to find any records in Ohio that might reveal which charter schools received PPP. I reached a dead end, but I sent some links on to Marla Kilfoyle. I think that Ohio’s required charter school reporting of “sources of income” may reflect PPP funding, but it is not yet available. But it may also be buried, as Carol Burris’ reporting suggests.
This should be the “looting” (& the looters) WH it Tweeted about.
Major crimes, here, for no good reason other than to greatly enriched the already greatly enriched.
If you go to Mastery’s website, you will find that all of their Philadelphia charter schools have the same Board of Trustees which is why their boards meet at the same time. Most of Philadelphia charters are connected to local politicians, both Republicans and Democrats.
And yet each of the Mastery charters have applied for federal Money as if they were independent entities.
Do you feel that other not-for-profits are also “looting the treasury”, or is it just charter schools? Do you realize that since PPP funds are used for payroll, the money is going primarily to teachers? Do you have that much disdain for charter teachers and students that you think they should not use a federal program that was created to help offset cuts in revenue? Do you not acknowledge that charter schools have an obligation to do what’s best for their students, including participating in programs that might help reduce cuts? So much for “education for all”. You should be supportive of money going to public education. I know charter schools also support more spending for district schools.
John,
I know you are all in for charters, but the PPP is only for small businesses. Public schools are excluded. Charters have not lost funding. They are looting a program intended to help small businesses. Got it? Small businesses. If they are businesses, they should stop claiming to be public schools. Boundless greed and hypocrisy. Tens of thousands of small businesses have had no revenue since March. That is not the case for any charter school.