Peeking Into Charter Schools: Imagine Schools

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by David Safier

“It’s our school as much as anyone else’s school. We’ve made it very clear that if you don’t trust us, don’t start with us, because we are there forever. It’s very difficult to unwind this marriage, and it was meant to be that way.”
Dennis Bakke, founder, President and CEO of Imagine Schools

The statement above by Dennis Bakke is the single most non-educational statement I can remember coming out of the mouth of anyone connected with education. The man who said it thinks of a charter school as the rough equivalent of a WalMart store. Once a community green lights a spot for a store/school, all the corporation has to do is attract customers and take the money they carry in with them. If the community doesn't like the way Imagine does business, it shouldn't have let the school set up shop in the first place.

Imagine Schools is a for profit corporation that runs about 72 charters in 12 states and Washington, D.C. Fourteen of those schools are in Arizona. Only Florida has more. Many of the AZ schools, maybe all of them, are for profit charters, which is legal here, though not in most states.

Bakke's corporate mindset is less surprising when you know his background. He made a bundle as CEO of AES, an international energy corporation, until he was asked to step down during the Enron debacle. He's listed a one of Forbes 400 richest people.

What's surprising is the lengths Imagine Schools is willing to go to make a profit, especially considering that Bakke is set for about a dozen very opulent lifetimes. The corporate ideal is to pack as many students in a classroom as possible, hire inexperienced teachers who can be paid low salaries, then give them a minimum of textbooks and supplies. The quality of education the students receive tends to be very low on the hierarchy of considerations. The school buildings are owned by a subsidiary, then sold to a trust which rents them to the schools at exorbitant rates and gives the subsidiary a cut. The decision making is done at the corporate level in Virginia — the hiring, firing and purchasing. School staffs and School Boards are supposed to take orders and shut up. Anyone who steps out of line is let go. It's all about how much profit can be squeezed out of the tax dollars that follow the students.

Imagine Schools may not all fit the picture I'm painting, of course, but from what I've read and people have told me, that appears to be the corporate mindset, and the quality of education suffers accordingly.

Charters run by Imagine Schools are taking heat in the press, from Departments of Education and from Auditors General in Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Florida and Texas. In Arizona, the schools are flying well under the radar. It may be that Imagine's charters here are stellar institutions which are well run and have the students' best interests foremost in their minds. Or, just as likely, because Arizona's Department of Education has a hands off policy toward charter schools and the Auditor General doesn't see financial reports from most of them, no one in the state government knows what's going on, or much cares.

Expect a number of posts about Imagine Schools. There are too many stories to confine them to one post. Many of the stories will come from other states, since the press hasn't looked into the charters here. I'm working on following the money trail in our Imagine charters, but it's tough work, since Arizona's financial reporting requirements for charters aren't nearly as strict as they are for school districts.

As always, I'm dependent on readers to let me know about things I can't possibly know myself. I hope to hear from parents, teachers and administrators, current and past. If you want to get in contact with me, you can either comment on the posts or email me at safier@schooltales.net. I always respect the confidentiality of people who email me if that is their wish.

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4 thoughts on “Peeking Into Charter Schools: Imagine Schools”

  1. David – perhaps the motivation is simply hubris. He believes he can run a school ‘like a business’ and have better outcomes for cheaper than public schools.

  2. Jennifer, your comment raises a question I’m just starting to grapple with: what are the motives of Bakke and his associates? If it’s to show that the private sector can do education better than the public, he should do everything he can to get the best of the best staff in his schools and give them the tools they need to be successful instead of siphoning off money for profit. If his motive is simply to provide high quality education, he would do the same thing. So why is he sabotaging his own schools — it almost seems intentionally? Is he like so many people motivated by profit — they’re driven by the profit motive, even after they’ve made their first ten billion? Is it like playing Monopoly — it’s about winning the game, not the actual money you make?

    When I get further in exploring what happens in his schools, I may have more to say on the subject. Or maybe I’ll throw it out as an open question.

  3. David, You wrote “What’s surprising is the lengths Imagine Schools is willing to go to make a profit, especially considering that Bakke is set for about a dozen very opulent lifetimes.” After I realized there was no sincerity in the alternative education that the Bakkes were selling to local communities across the country, this very sentiment you shared was complexing to me. If they didn’t truly hope to make a difference (as is apparent given their MO), then what’s the purpose? They’re already filthy rich as are most of the friends and associates they took with them on this venture. Maybe Critical theorist Jeffrey Pfeffer is truly on to something when he says that profits play second fiddle to power. Indeed, the desire for power is so strong that elites would even sacrifice productivity for it…”control, not efficiency, is the objective of organizing arrangements” – Just a thought.
    Jennifer

  4. Noted social scientists conclude that America, if not the world at large, but certainly America is following a path tending to lead to towards – tribal – membership or identification.

    From this perspective it may be a bit easier to contemplate how and why – charter schools – such as Imagine School see current success.

    While the presentation in this blog does not foster a positive feeling for me about Imagine Schools, from what I can determine Imagine Schools is not guilty of breaking any laws oh, sure, they may bend a few rules, but tell me who today is not engaged in that…?

    As described in this blog, Imagine Schools operation does not meet my own desire for education to be open, honest, equitable available without regard to race, color, creed or social status. I therefore line up on that side of the ledger supporting public education. I do not choose to deny anyone the right to participate as a matter of choice in any other form of education, however, as a citizen or an individual living in the United States of America and enjoying the rights and privileges we still have, I do feel we each have the primary responsibility to first support quality public education and any other form secondarily.

    That Imagine School might be engaged in financial “hanky-panky” I do not find unusual as one can not go a week without some form of financial “skullduggery” coming to light and increasingly very quickly prodigiously seeping into mainstream.

    Until “we” – that’s you and me – get a bellyful of being kept in the dark – treated like mushrooms – and demand and accept nothing less that full, open, honest, timely DISCLOSURE expecting Imagine Schools to act differently is not logical.

    Respectfully,

    Paul F Miller
    http://waterman99.wordpress.com

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