I have posted reports of individual charter schools that received hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. These charters claimed to be small businesses, not public schools, which were not eligible to get PPP money. Until two days ago, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to release the names of those who asked for PPP money.
Now the list is out, and it will take a long time to analyze it because 650,000 applicants received federal funding from this program.
Some charters and charter advocates have already been identified on the PPP list. The grants awarded are not exact. They are in a range. I present here the upper limit of the range. I don’t know why the exact amount was not reported. That’s not like the federal government.
KIPP: 19 different KIPP applicants received up to a total of $58 million
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools received an amount in a range up to $1 million.
The California Charter Schools Association received an amount in a range up to $2 million.
The pro-charter, pro-voucher Center for Education Reform received up to $350,000.
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers collected up to $1 million
The handsomely funded Thomas B Fordham Foundation collected up to $1 million (when I was on the board in 2009, the TBF Institute had about $40 million in assets and has since received many grants from Gates and other foundations to promote privatization and Common Core).
It may take weeks to produce a full accounting of the coronavirus funds collected by the charter industry, its lobbyists, its advocacy groups, and its schools.
However, we do have a report for one state, Arizona.
Educator and author Curtis Cardine reviewed the PPP grants to private schools in Arizona and produced this list:
Charter Schools
1. Sonoran Schools, $1 to $2 million.
2. Success Schools, $1 to $2 million.
3. Acorn Montessori Charter School $350,000 to $1 million.
4. Arizona Autism Charter Schools, $350,000 to $1 million.
5. Arizona Montessori Charter School at Anthem, $350,000 to $1 million.
6. Ball Charter Schools (Dobson), $350,000 to $1 million.
7. Ball Charter Schools (Hearn), $350,000 to $1 million.
8. Candeo Schools, Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
9. Career Success Schools, $350,000 to $1 million.
10. Challenge School, Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
11. Desert Garden Montessori School Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
12. FitKids Charter School, $350,000 to $1 million.
13. Franklin Phonetic Primary School, $350,000 to $1 million.
14. International Commerce Secondary Schools Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
15. International School of Arizona Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
16. Keystone Montessori Charter School, $350,000 to $1 million.
17. LEAD Charter Schools, $350,000 to $1 million.
18. Legacy Traditional School, Peoria, $350,000 to $1 million.
19. Legacy Traditional School, East Mesa, $350,000 to $1 million.
20. Legacy Traditional School, Gilbert, $350,000 to $1 million.
21. Legacy Traditional School, North Chandler, $350,000 to $1 million.
22. Legacy Traditional School, Laveen, $350,000 to $1 million.
23. Legacy Traditional School, Goodyear, $150,000 to $350,000.
24. Liberty Traditional Charter School, $350,000 to $1 million.
25. Liberty Traditional Charter School, Inc, $350,000 to $1 million.
26. Legacy Traditional Schools – Nevada Inc., $2 to $5 million. This is the same company that runs Legacy in Arizona.
27. Mohave Accelerated Elementary School Inc, $350,000 to $1 million.
28. Noah Webster Schools – Pima, $350,000 to $1 million.
29. Noah Webster Schools-Mesa, $350,000 to $1 million.
30. Paradise Valley Christian School, $350,000 to $1 million.
31. Prescott Valley Charter School, $350,000 to $1 million.
32. Verde Valley School, $350,000 to $1 million.
33. Ball Charter Schools (Val Vista), $150,000 to $350,000.
34. Bright Beginnings School, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
35. CAFA Charter School, Lp, $150,000 to $350,000.
36. Concordia Charter School Inc, $150,000 to $350,000.
37. Crown Charter School, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
38. Desert Star Community School, $150,000 to $350,000.
39. E-Institute Charter High School, $150,000 to $350,000.
40. Eastpointe High School Inc. $150,000 to $350,000.
41. Incito Schools, $150,000 to $350,000.
42. Midtown Primary School, $150,000 to $350,000.
43. Milestones Charter School, $150,000 to $350,000.
44. Montessori Day School, Inc, $150,000 to $350,000.
45. Montessori International School, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
46. Mountain School, Inc, $150,000 to $350,000.
47. New Horizon School for The Performing Arts, $150,000 to $350,000.
48. North Star Charter School Inc, $150,000 to $350,000.
49. Park View School, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
50. Phoenix Advantage Charter School, $150,000 to $350,000.
51. Sedona Charter School, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
52. Synergy Public School, $150,000 to $350,000.
53. The Edge School Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
54. The Excalibur Charter School, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
55. Tucson International School Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
56. Twenty First Century Charter Schools Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
Religiously Affiliated
1. Gilbert Christian Schools, $1 to $2 million.
2. Northwest Christian School, $1 to $2 million.
3. Notre Dame Preparatory Roman Catholic High School, $1 to $2 million.
4. Valley Christian Schools, $1 to $2 million.
5. Bourgade Roman Catholic High School Phoenix, $350,000 to $1 million.
6. Desert Christian Schools Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
7. Joy Christian School, $350,000 to $1 million.
8. Phoenix Christian Unified Schools, Inc., $350,000 to $1 million.
9. Seton Roman Catholic High School Chandler, $350,000 to $1 million.
10. St Augustine Catholic High School, $350,000 to $1 million.
11. St Mary’s Roman Catholic High School, $350,000 to $1 million.
12. The Gregory School, $350,000 to $1 million.
13. Trinity Lutheran Church And School, $350,000 to $1 million.
14. Ascension Lutheran Church And School, $150,000 to $350,000.
15. Valley Lutheran High School Association, $350,000 to $1 million
16. Yuma Catholic High School, $350,000 to $1 million.
17. El Dorado Private School, $150,000 to $350,000.
18. Imago Dei Middle School, $150,000 to $350,000.
19. Lourdes Catholic School, $150,000 to $350,000.
20. Phoenix Christian School Society, Inc., $150,000 to $350,000.
21. Salpointe Catholic High School, $1 to $2 million.
Private Schools
1. The Orme School, $350,000 to $1 million.
2. Arizona School Of Integrative Studies llc, $150,000 to $350,000.
3. A Castlehill Management, Llc. Dba Castlehill Country Day School, $150,000 to $350,000.
4. Kriskat Investments, Llc Dba Primrose School Of Ahwatukee, $150,000 to $350,000. https://start.cortera.com/company/research/k9q8pxn1m/kriskat-investments-llc/
5. Lake Pleasant School 2 Llc, $150,000 to $350,000.
6. Lake Pleasant School Llc, $150,000 to $350,000
7. Lexis Preparatory School Llc, $150,000 to $350,000
8. Bayer Private School, $150,000 to $350,000.
9. Summit School of Ahwatukee, $350,000 to $1 million.
Perhaps you could do the same for your state.
The Paycheck Protection Program was indeed a bonanza for charters and other private schools. Charters had the advantage of collecting public funds as “public schools” and then collecting again as “small businesses.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Of bigger concern to me is the priorities of lawmakers and the Trump Administration.
Everyone worked as hard as they could to get additional funding to charter schools and private schools, and all public school have gotten are demands to reopen immediately and stern lectures from the Professional Public School Critics Association, which we’re also funding with PPP loans, judging by all the ed reform orgs on that list.
Why are public school students and families such a low priority? It’s July. The only thing 90% of students have gotten is a hastily assembled photo op where the anti-public school US Department of Education and Donald Trump issue orders.
It is simply not fair to public school students- the VAST majority of students in this country- to have public education policy run by people who don’t support our students and schools and do no work at all on their behalf. It’s ludicrous and I’m tired of paying for it. I don’t know why I’m paying 10,000 publicly-funded employees to act as professional opponents of public schools. They return NO value to 90% of students in this country and they utterly dominate elite education policy circles, to the extent that our schools are an afterthought and only used as political cudgel.
We have always known that many of the private companies operating charter schools are grifters, and this double dipping proves it. It the the big money cabal that allows private charter schools to loot public school budgets and then claim eligibility for assistance as a “small business.” At the same time real public schools get no help at all from the federal government even though public schools have been ordered to open in the fall. States hit hard by the virus are not getting the funding they need to safely open schools. This is another deliberate attempt to deliver more crushing blows to the nation’s public schools.
If public school advocates lobby and finally manage to wrangle away some additional funding from the charter/voucher crowd who run DC sometime in October, when they get around to it and after charters and private schools are taken care of, all charter schools benefit from that additional funding do they not?
You’re welcome, ed reformers. And thanks for nothing. Again.
So determined are these folks to NOT support public schools they won’t even advocate on our behalf when the charter schools they prefer would also benefit. It can’t be win/win. Public schools have to lose or the ed reform lobby hasn’t earned their PPP money.
This administration does not care about the 85-90% of the nation’s children that attend public schools.
“President Donald Trump in a ramped-up push to reopen schools vowed Tuesday to “put pressure” on reluctant governors, while Education Secretary Betsy DeVos blasted education leaders who won’t accept risk and “gave up and didn’t try” to launch summer instruction.”
Good work, ed reform. They appeared for 2 hours 4 months into the crisis to deliver a stern scolding to public schools, complete with a media blitz to push the anti-public school agenda. That’s the sum total of their contribution.
For that we bailed out the 5000 ed reform orgs and think tanks and lobbying groups, and we bailed them out AHEAD of the public schools they don’t support and don’t serve.
We paid the anti-public school lobby first. Public schools themselves? No one got that done.
Betsy DeVos threatened to withhold federal funding from public schools that don’t reopen.
PPP = yet another “Trickle Down” that trickled mostly up …
Diane, your public school advocacy org should have applied.
If we’re paying for every charter and voucher advocate/lobbyist in the country to remain employed, surely the 90% of students and families who attend public schools deserve one federally funded advocacy group too.
Who works for them? How did it happen that 90% of students were once again the dead last priority?
A NPE application most likely would have been ignored unless there was graft for Don the Con and the deplorables.
NPE was eligible to apply but it never occurred to us to apply because we are not a small business and would never consider asking for or taking money that was intended to save small businesses.
thus exposing the larger rot which truly hurts: that glaring lack of conscience, especially in times of painful crisis
Good point.
The organizations listed above may or may not have thought of the plan on their own. It’s possible that banks steered them to the application process.
Every million dollar take that the religious schools got, was money that a Mom and Pop store, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, didn’t get.
Many of the big recipients didn’t even have to apply. They were part of the inner crony circle.
The charter lobbying organizations worked to make charters eligible for the money, alerted charters to apply, and sent in their own applications too.
The echo chamber ed reform effect was on full display yesterday. 100% lavish praise of the charter and private schools they prefer and 100% negative bashing of the public schools they oppose on ideological grounds.
Aren’t some of these people paid as “academics”? Is there anyone listening to that who genuinely believes it’s “objective”? Why would ANY public school family or supporter want any of these folks anywhere NEAR their schools? Absolute contempt for our schools and students, always. All public schools and public school students are “failing”, always. All charters and private schools are near-miraculous successes, always. DeVos goes even further. She blandly states that students who attend religious private schools have better “values” than public school students. They’ve gone from bashing our schools to attacking our students and we’re paying for the whole anti-public school political campaign. I’m supposed to believe this is somehow “science”?
Irony –
The existence of the “values research” papers that underpin the dubious DeVos’ claim are themselves evidence of shoddy academic values.
The source for the contrived values research is theocracy, the Koch network, etc.
Anecdotes of the poor values of private and Catholic school students e.g. Brett Kavanaugh are plentiful enough to merit the initiation of a correlative review by a scholar with academic integrity.
The anti-democracy, Bill Gates, who said he participates in the Catholic church that his wife attends isn’t likely to pay for authorship of
research that bolsters the image of common goods any more than Charles Koch or Fordham would.
This turns my stomach.
Sickening.
But then, that’s the whole point of all this “IMMORAL” and “DESTRUCTIVE,” and “most GREEDY” actions.
There is no shame for bilking America and it’s blatant.
Not only was the PPP a boon to charters, religious, and wealthy private schools, it funded our local privatization groups. GO, GreatSchools, New Schools Venture Fund, Oakland Ed Fund, and Oakland Promise all got $350K-1M.
How many of the organizations you listed have IRS designation as non-profits and therefore, avoid paying taxes, making them very different from business employers who pay taxes?
A scam against the American people.
The law creating PPP allowed nonprofits to participate.
Assistance please – – I found the site listing state by state funding – and all have a number assigned to them but no name. “NAICSCode”
When I looked up the number , it went to the TYPE of business, but not the name.
I found a listing of codes by category (schools…) but no reverse way to get actual names.
How does one get to the list of actual recipients?
I am sure Betsy had her list ready to hand off to the PPP processors. As a citizen of Arizona and a parent of a public school kiddo, I find this so awful. And after that horrible announcement of forcing open schools by the Feds, I am even more appalled. As the state with the highest infection rate, I am proud that State Superintendent Hoffman and the PVUSD Superintendent Jesse Walsh are standing strong to protecting our school populations and the public. I do look forward to when my HS freshman can walk on campus to attend in person, when it is safe.
charter schools are public schools too. and they serve more students of color and low-income households. they also were nimble enough to move students to remote learning quickly while districts took weeks to figure out a plan to begin. Traditional schools impose a factory-style education system that is built to be convenient for adults rather than the students they are meant to serve. Maybe that works for 85-90% of students at really great schools but what about the 10-15% – most likely students of color, low-income households, traumatic backgrounds – who need something different. Until you guys understand this, more and more parents will demand a choice of where to send their students. I’m a bleeding heart liberal and I believe in ed reform, overhauling the way we fund schools and pay teachers, and school choice.
No, charters are not public schools. First, they have private management. Second, they collected PPP millions, and real public schools were not eligible to get PPP. That’s when they showed their true colors. Charter schools are small businesses.