Last spring, you may recall, the CARES Act included $13.2 billion for public and charter schools. In addition, $660 billion was allocated to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses and nonprofits that were struggling to survive due to the pandemic. Public schools were not allowed to apply for PPP. However, many charter schools learned through their lobbyists that they could apply for PPP. In other words, they double-dipped. They took the $134,500 or so that was available in the initial allotment for each public school. Then they went to the PPP and took another bite, which was far bigger than the funding allowed to public schools.
Which raises the interesting question: Are charter schools “public schools” or are they small businesses or private nonprofits? After all, public schools were not allowed to ask for PPP money, but over a thousand charter schools struck gold.
Nevada has a reputation for some of the worst charter schools in the country, but that doesn’t matter. Some of its charters really hit the big time with PPP funding. In 2015, CREDO investigator Margaret Raymond said to charter leaders in Ohio: “Be very glad that you have Nevada, so you are not the worst.”
PPP awards ranged from $168,500 to the online charter Leadership Academy of Nevada to $4.6 million to Doral Academy to support its five brick-and-mortar campuses in Southern Nevada. Many of the forgivable loans were coordinated and handled by the same entity, Academica Nevada, a regional branch of the Florida-based for-profit company that manages some 200 charter schools nationwide and has a strong presence in Nevada.
The charters that qualified for PPP money did so because they are incorporated as nonprofits, something Nevada law allows them to do. Even pre-pandemic, being a nonprofit is often financially beneficial because it opens up additional funding opportunities, such as grants through the federal Charter School Program.
Scan the list in the article: Democracy Prep received $1 million; Odyssey Charter Schools, $2.28 million; Pinecrest Academy, $4.6 million; Sports Leadership and Management Academy (SLAM), $800,000. Pinecrest and SLAM are part of the for-profit Academica chain; SLAM was started by rapper Pitbull, widely celebrated for his misogynistic lyrics.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Both public and Private
Charter schools are privelic
Private in the morn
Afternoons they’re public
One could say “they’re torn”
Torn between two funders
That’s a charter school
Funding both of them
Is breakin every rule
That last part is a parody of Torn between two lovers, of course
breaking every rule: perfect summation
Attitudinizer be attitudizing
Bullshitters be bullshitting
Connivers be conniving
Double dealers be dealing
Evangelicals be evangelizing
Flimflams be flimflaming
Grifters be grifting
Hucksters be hucking. . .
We know what they are. Keep it going folks.
This Washington Post article / expose (pretend there an accent on that e) will sound familiar with everyone. It exposes (no accent) how for-profit nursing homes received millions of state and federal dollars (medicare, covid, etc) AND contract out “related services” to contractors owned by the nursing home owners.
Hmmm… sound familiar.
They could do a “find and replace” substituting CHARTER SCHOOL for NURSING HOME and nothing else would need to change. Sure hope the scrutiny mounts from WAPO and others on charters as the new legislative season begins.
Profit and pain: How California’s largest nursing home chain amassed millions as scrutiny mounted
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/31/brius-nursing-home/
The practice is legal and widely supported by the industry, which argues that related parties help control costs and limit financial liability. Watchdog groups counter that nursing home owners can reap excessive profits from public funds by overpaying their own companies. Related parties generally do not have to disclose profits, leaving regulators with little way to assess the financial gains of owners.