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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Where Hedge Funds Meets Charter Schools HedgeFund.net

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Where Hedge Funds Meets Charter Schools
by Ricardo Kaulessar , Reporter
Published:August 10, 2011


Ever wonder how a hedge fund manager ended up on the board of directors of your local charter school?

That’s the question Don Whittinghill, a consultant to the Louisiana School Boards Association, set out to answer in a recent report posted on LSBA’s website.

The report, “Following The Dollars,” looks at how those in the corporate world have seized upon investment opportunities in the charter school movement.

Charter schools are free public schools founded by parents and/or educators. They are different in that most avoid the local school board oversight and teacher’s union contracts that other public schools must face. And in many cases, charter schools have their own boards.

Most of their funding comes from taxpayer money with the rest received in