Why Do Florida’s Big Charter Schools Have So Much Cash in Reserve?
While their lobbying arms work overtime to put more cash in their pockets, Florida’s big charter school are doing just fine. Writes Mary McGrory and Scott Hiassen in the Miami Herald:
Earlier this month, Doug Rodriguez, the principal of the Doral Academy Preparatory Middle/High charter school, told a Senate committee that the lack of construction money has “placed a cap on our school. We’re not able to expand.”
But many charter schools, including Rodriguez’s, routinely collect more tax dollars than they spend, and sock away the unspent cash. The Doral Academy charter-school network, comprised of five Miami-Dade schools, had net assets of $13.6 million last year, much of it cash, records
