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Charter operator used political connections to receive funding and approval

By Mark W. Anderson | Originally Published at The Ward Room. NBC Chicago. December 26, 2013
First UNO. Now Concept.
Clearly, something’s wrong.
Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported a politically-connected charter school operator, Concept Schools, Inc., used a little-known state agency to receive approval and funding to open two schools in Chicago after being turned down by the Chicago Public Schools.
CPS said the charter’s current school, Chicago Math and Science Academy, wasn’t doing a good enough job to warrant expansion. So the company appealed to the Illinois State Charter School Commission, an agency created with the help of House Speaker Michael Madigan, a firm backer of charter schools in general and Concept in particular.
The whole story is a tangle of insider dealing, cronyism and political favoritism, played out against a backdrop of massive transfer of public education funds from public to private schools in Chicago and across