Under pressure, charters nix cash-for-applicant tactic
A city charter school network abruptly abandoned a recruiting effort today that would have paid families cash rewards for bringing new students to its schools. The retraction happened two and a half hours after Ireported the effort on Twitter earlier today.
A screenshot of the bulletin posted to Girls Prep charter school’s web site, offering cash to parents who recruited students. Girls Prep’s network later removed the page after canceling the program.The network, Public Prep, yanked an bulletin for the offer on the website of two of its charters.
The tweet caused a “firestorm,” said Public Prep CEO Ian Rowe, and even prompted a worried call from the Department of Education. ”Given the way it’s been framed and received, we decided to pull it,” he said.
The cash reward was available at two Girls Prep Lower East Side schools, which have vacant seats in their kindergarten through sixth grades. Public Prep promised to give current parents a $100 cash card and a $100 contribution to a college savings plan if they found students to enroll at the schools and stay for at least three months.
Rowe said the program was part of an aggressive recruiting strategy required by the Lower East Side’s competitive school marketplace. Besides attracting students, he said, another goal was to “incentivize ou
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