I really wish the government would thoroughly investigate charter school proposals before handing them loads of money. There are a ton of cash-strapped schools/districts that could have used those funds.

While it doesn't mean that all charter schools are bad, it's another red flag to me. As I mentioned in my other OP, I've seen a small, locally run charter turn into a nightmare when it was sold to a national for-profit charter chain.

It seems completely illogical, not to mention a recipe for disaster, as was the case here.

SCHOOLS, PRIVATIZED)

That video I posted last week has a description of their relationship.

By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing. Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll.

By Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.

Kids mean money. Agora is expecting income of $72 million this school year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total anticipated revenues of K12, the biggest player in the online-school business. The second-largest, Connections Education, with revenues estimated at $190 million, was bought this year by the education and publishing giant Pearson for $400 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/online-schools-score-better-on-wall-street-than-in-classrooms.html?pagewanted=all