Imagine Schools take a beating in the NY Times

by David Safier

I've posted often about problems with Imagine Schools, a corporation out of Virginia that runs 71 charter schools across the country, including 13 in Arizona. Saturday, the issues raised here, on other blogs and in local papers across the country (no papers in Arizona, unfortunately) received major coverage in the NY Times.

Let me highlight some of the issues raised in the Times article:

• Dennis Bakke "retired with a fortune from the AES Corporation" (a company reminiscent of ENRON in many ways) and founded Imagine Schools.
• "Imagine is now the largest commercial manager of charter schools in the country."
• The idea behind charter schools is to bring new ideas and local control to education. "But regulators in some states have found that Imagine has elbowed the charter holders out of virtually all school decision making — hiring and firing principals and staff members, controlling and profiting from school real estate, and retaining fees under contracts that often guarantee Imagine’s management in perpetuity."
• Imagine is unashamed of its total control of its schools. According to its website, “Imagine Schools operates the entire school, and is not a consultant or management company. All principals, teachers, and staff are Imagine Schools people. The Imagine Schools culture is meant to permeate every aspect of the school’s life.”
• Imagine touts itself as a non-profit, even though it's a for profit corporation.
• Imagine Schools in Nevada, Indiana and Florida have run into problems based on the company's contractual control of its charters. In Texas, Imagine Schools attempted to skirt the non profit rules and ran into legal problems which have received heavy coverage in local papers. In Georgia, a school recently ended its contract with Imagine over financial and governance issues.
• Most of the state charter money for Imagine schools flows upwards to the corporation, and schools often find themselves in debt, putting their independence in even greater jeopardy.
• Imagine has a complex financial system where it builds or buys schools, sells them to a private company, then charges the schools exorbitant rent which combines payment to the private company on top of extra fees that go to Imagine. In some schools, as much as 40% of their state revenues go to pay the rent.

According to information I've received from a few sources, the NY Times reporter, Stephanie Strom, has far more material than she could put in her article. I hope she finds an outlet for the rest of her research — either more stories in the Times or a full length expose in a national magazine.

Most of Arizona's Imagine Schools are clustered in the Phoenix area with one in Sierra Vista. I just read that Imagine has put the Sierra Vista building up for sale. More on that in a later post.