How a couple worked charter school regulations to make millions
Though she was fresh out of college, she was pretty sure it wasnt normal for the school to churn so quickly through teachers or to mount surveillance cameras in each classroom. Old computers were lying around, but the campus had no internet access. Pay was low and supplies scarce she wasnt given books for her students.
She struggled to reconcile the schools conditions with what little she knew about its wealthy founders, Clark and Jeanette Parker of Beverly Hills.
When Kawamoto saw their late-model Mercedes-Benz outside the school, she would think: Look at your school, then look at what you drive.
That didnt sit well with us teachers, she said.
The Parkers have cast themselves as selfless philanthropists, telling the California Board of Education that they have devoted all of our lives to the education of other peoples children, committed many millions of our own dollars directly to that particular purpose, with no gain directly to us.
But the couple have, in fact, made millions from their charter schools. Financial records show the Parkers schools have paid more than $800,000 annually to rent buildings the couple own. The charters have contracted out services to the Parkers nonprofits and companies and paid Clark Parker generous consulting fees, all with taxpayer money, a Times investigation found.
https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-charter-schools-20190327-htmlstory.html
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)some one reported how these For Profit so called Public Subsidized Charter Schools really work.
Kiss up to your local Political Guru,and hey,you too can open a Taxpayer for Profit School. We have a couple of these crap holes happening in real time.
MarcA
(2,195 posts)Maine-i-acs
(1,501 posts)with the added benefit of gaming state laws to be in her favor.
BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)my neighbor/friend/coworker left my school to teach at a charter school, the same one his brother taught at. His brother had no teaching degree and left after a year or two. My friend who went on to teach at the middle school told me that after less than 5 years he was the senior teacher, the turnover was that high. He left after 6 years.
One day I happened to be walking behind our fairly new superintendent who was a businessman. During his first year he fired 33% of the support staff and within 3 years most of the teachers who could retired early due to his severe and disastrous budget cuts. I knew what he looked like from my meetings as a union rep so when I saw him I eavesdropped as I walked behind him and a pal going into a restaurant for lunch. He was telling his friend how great charter schools were and how he was supporting them and not the public schools he was hired to support and represent.
Some charter schools hire unqualified and inexperienced teachers, produce students who are not prepared for college or the real world and take money away from the public schools who desperately need the funds. Some schools are better than others and I would suggest parents research each school carefully since they are not all they appear to be. Also, students learn differently and the teaching methods in charter schools may not be beneficial to all students.