Money Makes the World Go Around

Money makes the world around, doesn't it? Well, the Charter School "Professionals" sure seem to think so. In fact, they know it...that's why they are in the game so to speak.

Let's look at a couple of interesting articles shall we?

  This article from The Washington Post discusses a court ruling involving White Hat Management Company in Ohio. They also are involved in running some schools in Florida.

  Coincidentally, some of the company's former key players went and formed a little ole company called Newpoint Education Partners. You've heard of them, right? They are the folks that run that little school we are all so terribly fond of..you know, the "F" school Windsor Prep. Makes you wonder who helped them develop their business model. 

   Anywhoo, it's an enlightening read. Shows yet again it's all about the profit margin, and how defenseless we, the tax payers, are against them.

 In fact, this interesting read from The Wall Street Journal shows that real estate investors are now looking at ways to profit from this gimmick as well. It's an almost bottomless resource comprised almost entirely of our tax dollars. Neat huh? Real Estate investors, hedge find managers, corporations llike WalMart, athletes, and politicians all run schools too. But it's for the kids, right? Not for the $$$$$ oooooh noooooo.  http://www.nakedcapitalism.com

K12 is another White Hat acquainted school option. Here, a former employee testified in a class action suit emphasizing the "business practices" they go by:
"...Working in call centers, recruiters received bonuses tied to enrollment and were pressured to meet “unrealistic quotas,” with top performers offered lunches, cash and gifts, according to a 2012 shareholder lawsuit by the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. The company’s philosophy was “enroll, enroll, enroll,” an anonymous former employee said in the class-action complaint in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
K12 denied any wrongdoing and settled the suit in 2013 for $6.75 million...  " They are constantly recruiting new "customers (their word not mine) to replce others as they become dissatisfied and leave.
"...Michael Milken was a key figure in K12’s founding. A health-care philanthropist and former 1980s junk-bond financier, he served 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud in 1990.  Milken has long supported for-profit education. His company, Knowledge Universe, operates more than 2,000 preschools as well as Asian International College in Singapore...."
Seriously, one school in Colorado: "...Over the past five years, the school received $125 million in taxpayer money, with $100 million flowing to K12 for management, technology, curriculum and fees, he said. Parental discontent was growing, he said..." What's not love?

And what makes it even worse is that so many of our elected officials are not just complicit, but rather are active participants in the profiteering as they pass laws t benefit themselves and their cronies. All of the facts she states in this piece from The Withering Apple blog post are easily researched and verifiable. It's appalling.

More to come....