What do you think? Are charter schools public schools or small businesses?
On her recent blog, Diane asked an important question.
“Are charter schools public schools or small businesses with government contracts? They claim to be public schools, even though they have private, unelected boards and private management.”
Diane is outraged, as we all should be because charters took CARES Act funding for public schools, and then some double-dipped into Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds intended to keep small businesses from shutting down.
Read what happened here in The Washington Post where we explain what we uncovered.
Then share the story on social media with this link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/05/27/did-some-charters-schools-double-dip-federal-coronavirus-relief-funding/
NPE’s Marla Kilfoyle has been diligently collecting the names and the amounts that charter schools have received from the SBA. It has not been easy because charters do not want to admit they are taking these funds.
Will you lend Marla a hand? Check the board minutes of your local charter schools during April and May and see if the charter Board approved applying for and accepting PPP funds. If you find any, send the name of the school, amount and a link to the board minutes to ma***********@ne***********************.org .
On Wednesday evening, please join Diane and her guest community leader and public school advocate Jitu Brown for an important discussion about equity and civil rights. Register for this important event here.
