In the fall of 2021, one in every five (20%) charter school students was enrolled in a for-profit run school.
There is no other way to put it–the for-profit charter industry saw an opportunity to expand its market share during a national health crisis and took it. Worst of all, 27% of for-profit enrolled students attended a low-quality virtual charter.
Read NPE’s latest report, Chartered for Profit II: Pandemic Profiteering.
Profiteering and grift are possible because for-profit operators use their taxpayer-funded wealth to influence lawmakers to keep regulations and oversight lax. In a single year in Arizona, 91.8 percent of charter schools were granted exemptions from procurement regulations meant to ensure taxpayer funds were being spent responsibly. Sweeps contracts are commonly used to give the for-profit operator financial control over the allegedly nonprofit school. Sweetheart deals and related party transactions allow the operator’s family and friends, board members and even employees to cash in on public funds meant for kids. Through elaborate webs of property flips and purchases by related companies, operators find ways to fill their bank accounts from charter schools. We explain it all.
Read and share our report using this link: https://networkforpubliceducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Chartered-for-Profit-II.pdf
Three states with a high proportion of charter schools–Michigan, Florida and Ohio–are now dominated by the for-profit-run charter industry with over half of their schools being nonprofit in name only. And Nevada and Arizona are quickly catching up. Will your state be next?
Read Chartered for Profit II and find out the how and why of the charter for-profit world. It’s time we demand reform.
2023 Conference
We hope you’ll join us for the NPE/NPE Action 2023 Conference in Washington, D.C., Public Schools: Where Democracy Grows. We will be gathering at the Capital Hilton in the heart of the nation’s capital to celebrate our 10th Anniversary on October 28-29, 2023.
You can book your hotel reservations here, and if you would like to present at the 2023 conference fill out the application for panelists here.
Donate to NPE
Please consider making a donation to the Network for Public Education. We rely on donations from supporters like you to produce reports, organize our conference and so much more. We were so grateful for our 2022 supporters that we created a page on our website to thank them.
We hope we can rely on your financial support in 2023! You can make a donation here.
