“Education Inc.” — Imagine Schools under the microscope

by David Safier

Today's Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana, began a 3 part series about the corporation, Imagine Schools, and the charters it runs in Indiana. Compared to these stories, the posts I've written have handled these folks with kid's gloves. The first day's articles are serious stuff.

The Sunday paper actually has two interlocking stories, Private company skirts public boards in running tax-funded charter schools and Company’s compliance to tax policy in question, as well as an editorial, Who’s minding the charters? If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same approach the East Valley Trib took in its investigative series on tuition tax credits and STOs.

Arizona reporters should take note. There's gold stories in them thar hills charters. Lack of adequate oversight, which is evident in the Indiana charter situation, goes double or triple here in AZ. Potential problems aren't limited to Imagine Schools, of course. The Star pointed out problems with some charters in an excellent article awhile ago, and I've pointed out problems with others. Our wild west treatment of charter regulation and oversight — minimal to nonexistent — is fertile ground for abuse.

I can't begin to do justice to the information in today's two investigative pieces. The thrust of the main piece is that the boards of the non profit Imagine charters in Indiana are basically puppet committees without power or authority. The for profit Imagine Schools corporations pulls the strings, which is very likely a violation of IRS rules regarding non profits.

I've written about the same problem with AZ's Imagine schools, though without the same level of detail or authority. My excuse is, I'm a simple blogger. This is a job for real investigative journalists. Kudos to Dan Stockman and Kelly Soderlund for their first day's work.

The story about compliance to IRS tax policy is a fascinating look into IRS policies regarding non profit charter schools. The IRS has created a detailed set of guidelines and red flags to indicate whether charters are living up to their non profit status. Imagine Schools have so many red flags, they could attract the attention of every bull in Pamplona.

More on this series as it plays itself out Monday and Tuesday.

This is one of a series of posts, Peeking into Charter Schools. If you have information you wish to contribute, you can post comments or email me: safier@schooltales.net.