by David Safier
I haven't written about Imagine Schools for awhile. They're a huge, nationwide, for-profit corporation with over a dozen schools in Arizona. They've also been plagued with problems, which have gotten lots of press nationwide. I have a huge folder filled with articles about Imagine Schools problems from around the country, but few articles from Arizona papers. We have a wild west attitude toward charter schools. "Anything goes. Yee Haw!"
It looks like the Imagine Schools corporation's profit motives are in conflict with its educational mission once again.
In St. Petersburg, Florida, Imagine's Central Avenue school has an "F" rating, is losing students and is $1 million in debt to the corporation. That's public debt, since charters are funded by the state.
Some parents said they were unaware of financial or governance problems at the school…
Parent Scott Benjamin saw and heard more in his role as chairman of the parent-teacher organization. He pulled his fourth-grade son out of the school last spring, after several experienced teachers were fired.
"The teachers told me about the budget cuts and the stress they were under to work after school, for what they described as no additional payments," he said…
"A board must show that it is not a front for a management company," the agency said in published guidelines.
Charter schools are a young idea going through some serious growing pains — and "growing" is the correct term, since Duncan and Obama are pouring tons of money into charters.
Good charters can be excellent. Bad charters can be criminal — literally. But here in Arizona, we don't have the oversight or the regulations to encourage the best schools and weed out the worst.
The state's Charter School Board isn't interested.
The press, except for the occasional article, isn't interested.
I'm interested. A few Democratic state legislators are interested.
And the Republicans embrace charter schools as part of the "school choice" movement, so their attitude is, the less government regulation and oversight, the better.
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Pondoora.
I’m removing your comment because it’s not germane to my post. If you wish to email me with information about the Sonoran Science Academy and other similar schools, you may do so at safier@schooltales.net. As you may know, I have written about the topic in the past and have concluded that there is not enough there to object to strenuously. But I am always happy to learn more information, and I am open to changing my mind if I see compelling evidence.