Reporting on Imagine School in Indiana brings results

by David Safier

Remember that wonderful 5 part investigation of tuition tax credits and STOs in the East Valley Trib? And remember how the Trib reporters as well as others at the Republic kept adding to the story? And remember how all this journalistic attention led to not one, but two legislative committees looking into tax credits and STOs?

Pretty neat how that works, isn't it? Power of the press and all that good stuff.

Well, a similar thing is beginning to happen in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the Journal Gazette published a series of articles about their local, non profit Imagine Schools being run by the for profit Imagine Schools corporation instead of by their local boards, in direct violation of IRS regulations. Ball State University, which is responsible for the charters, has woken up to the problem and is beginning to take action.

Ball State University wants all Imagine Schools boards in Indiana to undergo leadership and governance training and is investigating whether two local boards violated state law.

[snip]

John Jacobson, dean of Ball State’s Teachers College, sent a letter and gave an interview to The Journal Gazette on Wednesday, calling the information presented in a three-day series published last week "deeply troubling" and said "serious concerns" were raised about Imagine’s two Fort Wayne charter schools.

[snip]

Ball State officials have notified each of the four boards related to Imagine, which operates two schools in Fort Wayne and two in Indianapolis, that they will be required to participate in training conducted by a nationally recognized authority on charter school governance and leadership, Jacobson said. They are also investigating whether the Fort Wayne boards violated Indiana’s Open Door Law by approving a series of measures outside a public meeting.

The schools face the possibility of having their charters revoked if they don’t comply, Jacobson said.

That's journalism at its best, sniffing out problems and bringing them to light. That kind of thing tends to focus the minds of the people in charge — in this case, Ball State. I wouldn't be surprised if Imagine Schools CEO is beginning to sit up and take notice as well.

I'll repeat a Q&A I've gone through on this blog many times before.

Q: Does Arizona have similar problems here with our numerous Imagine schools as well as other charters where the local schools are run, for all intents and purposes, by their for profit CMOs? (Another candidate which I looked into in the past is Arizona Virtual Academy. Though a non profit in name, it's run by K12 Inc., a huge national corporation, with little "interference" by its board here in Arizona.)

A: We don't know the answer, because I'm the only one covering this turf in the state, so far as I know, and I don't have the skills, the clout or the large readership to bring the whole story together effectively. My investigations lead me to believe we have a similar or identical situation here which needs to be investigated by a journalist or two, then by the AZ Charter School Board.

This is low hanging fruit for some competent, eager reporter. The Fort Wayne paper and other papers around the country have already done the initial leg work and pointed out numerous problem areas to be looked into. I've collected a reasonable amount of data which I am happy and eager to share. It's a matter of someone at a paper following the leads, getting some answers and writing it up.

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.