Imagine Schools in Arizona: an example

by David Safier
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.

I looked through the financial data on charter schools at the AZ DOE to get a sense of how Imagine Schools here spend their money. Here's my first pass at the data.

I chose two Imagine School sites, one in Avondale, the other in Coolidge. Both are for profit, both have an elementary and a middle school on campus, and both have been open between 1 and 2 years. I went through the 2009 budget and the 2010 budget projections and basically averaged the two (One school opened this year, so I had no 2009 data).

Then, for comparison, I did the same thing with BASIS in Scottsdale, which is also a new school, and Sonoran Science Academy on Broadway, a school that has been around for awhile which opened for students on August 11th, 2008 [Note: This is a correction from the school's vice principal. I regret the error]. The comparisons aren't exact, but they give a rough idea of how money is spent.

(If the table is too small, click on it for a full sized version).

First let me say, I did nothing to cook the numbers. I did the best I could to represent the schools accurately. All the information is online, so others can see how I arrived at the numbers.

The most important comparison is in the red box: % of budget that goes for instruction. The Imagine School numbers range from 25% to 37%, while BASIS and Sonoran Science are 46% and 52%. This is the touchstone — the amount you spend on the essential task of education. (BTW, please don't compare these percentages with public schools, since I'm sure the way I arrived at my numbers is different from the way it's done for public schools. But for charter-to-charter comparisons, these are pretty good.)

Avondale spends the greatest percent on building costs,while the Coolidge percentages are similar to or even a bit lower than the other two schools.

The last two columns are very telling. The Imagine Schools spend lots of money in the categories "Central Services" and "Noninstructional Services." BASIS has nothing in those categories, and Sonoran Science has a negligible amount.

Every dollar spent away from students is a dollar not spent on students, by definition. The more cubby holes you have for expenses, the more money you drain away from education. In these two examples, the Imagine Schools have lots of cubby holes.

I haven't carried these comparisons out to any other Imagine Schools. I plan to in the future.