Sounds that way to me.
Imagine Charter Schools, a Virginia based company, is struggling in Florida. Schools they run owe them millions as their parent company.
SO...if I read this correctly Imagine Charters appealed to the Department of Education in Florida. The DOE, according to this article in the St. Pete Times, is going to change the rules to make it easier for Imagine Charters.
Imagine has been trying to qualify for non-profit status with the IRS since 2005. They have not succeeded. Yet it sounds like from this article that the Florida DOE will ease the way for them to qualify in the state.
I wonder why they would do this?
Districts question Imagine School's statusImagine has yet to receive the nonprofit status it has sought from the IRS since 2005, and school officials in Texas, Georgia, Nevada and Indiana — as well as Alachua, Indian River and Palm Beach counties in Florida — have challenged the company's applications.
.."Faced with challenges from several districts, Imagine sought a ruling from the state on its nonprofit status. On Jan. 5, the Department of Education told the company it would develop new rules on the issue and invite public comment. Imagine officials say they're pleased with the result.
"The proposal is pretty much what we've always argued defines a nonprofit," Huber said.
The draft rules, due to be reviewed Wednesday at a public meeting, would allow schools to qualify for nonprofit status by demonstrating that they were operated for public purposes and "not organized primarily for profit." They also specify that individuals or shareholders can't benefit from net earnings.
That creates the potential for abuse, said Henry Levin, a professor of economics and education at Columbia University Teachers College.
"The problem is it doesn't prevent self-dealing," he said. "As long as you allow them to set any salaries they want, to put anyone on the payroll that they want, to pay for services where there is some association with them or a relative, there's just no protection in this."
The article points out that this Imagine School alone owes its parent company about a million dollars...with taxpayers footing the bill.
That money is taken from public schools and given to companies to run schools that are funded with public money yet run privately with little regulation.
So even though this is not
the only Imagine School with huge debt...the Florida DOE is making it easier for the company to continue forming schools to take more public money.
That is just stunning to me.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
