This is part 3 of the USA Today expose of the charter school grab of federal COVID funding intended to save small businesses. The series was written by investigative journalist Craig Harris. Even the lobbyist for charter schools (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools) pulled in nearly $700,000. Should the money be returned?
He writes:
- USA TODAY found 1,139 U.S. charter schools had $1 billion in PPP loans forgiven.
- The investigation found nearly all – 93% – lost no money during the pandemic.
- Critics want Small Business Administration to get PPP repayments from charter schools.
The Biden administration has promised to go after those who may have abused federal financial assistance during the pandemic, and charter schools could be one of the industries under scrutiny.
The publicly funded but privately operated schools that teach a fraction of U.S. children obtained more than $1 billion in forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans designed to help struggling small businesses during the pandemic.
A USA TODAY investigation found more than 1,100 U.S. charter schools had those loans forgiven, but 93% of them may not have needed the money because they were in states that continued to fund their operations at the same level as before the pandemic, or at even higher levels in some cases.
The loan program had enough leeway to allow small businesses, including charter schools, to qualify without showing any financial need. Federal regulations only required businesses seeking the loans to say they faced “economic uncertainty” and the money was necessary to support ongoing operations.
A congresswoman and fiscal watchdogs are calling upon the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which administered the loan forgiveness program, to claw back some of that money.
Charter schools’ PPP loans
USA TODAY examined documents from the Internal Revenue Service, SBA, state Departments of Education and charter schools, and interviewed dozens of people, including education experts and watchdogs to find:
►The range of forgiven loans for 1,139 charter schools in 37 states was $150,746 to $9.8 million.
►A small San Diego charter chain that serves low-income children turned down a $3 million PPP loan, saying taking the money was unethical because California cut no funding to public schools.
►One California charter chain obtained $32.7 million in PPP loans by using 12 separate nonprofit companies that are linked to different schools to get the money. All of the loans were sent to the same address in Lancaster. The chain, Learn4Life, denied any wrongdoing.
►KIPP, one of the largest charter chains in the country, saw its bottom line swell by $27 million in fiscal 2020. However, 14 of its affiliate organizations across the country had $28.4 million in PPP loans forgiven. KIPP said its affiliates had additional financial needs.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The money that charters took and did not need !!! Should be made to turn that money over to the traditional Public Schools.
Why !!!
The traditional Public School need the money so that they can address their special needs population and their general population and provide them with the resources necessary for academic advancement and skill building and to add trades to the traditional Public as continued options for career development.
I agree with you that the $$$$ should be returned, but even before Covid, public schools needed the $$$ for what you list. The problem is that $$$$ has been thrown at public school systems for years, but that $$$ never seems to make it to the classroom level (students and teachers). All the money goes to the deformers to purchase a “shiny new” program/thing that will make public education all rainbows and unicorns. Public education is a nearly privatized social good….much like medicine has become.
I am speaking off the top of my head again, but it is my understanding that by far the largest proportion of the school budget is salaries, and they sure haven’t been throwing money at teachers! State budgets as a rule have shirked their mandated responsibilities to funding public education for years, and everybody knows what it is like to try to pass a local referendum. You are right that it at least seems like canned programs have taken over for the professional judgement of teachers, but savvy teachers have been able to meld some actual teaching into the mix. That being said, I don’t know how anybody remains in teaching these days. The way teachers are treated is beyond toxic.
As I read this I heard the great cry of Trump style rage spreading like a massive earthquake shaking the United States from the small number of greedy charter CEOs roaring in anger that anyone would dare even mention such a thing. That they might have to pay back their ill gotten gains and maybe sell off their private jets, yachts and vacation homes spread around the world.
🙂 A roar which goes on and on and on…
Yes!
They knew what they were doing…
Lock Em Up !