UPDATED: As Detroit Free Press does week-long exposé of charter schools, National Heritage Academies buys up all its ad space
NOTE: This post has been updated HERE.
The Detroit Free Press is running a spectacular, week-long series on charter schools in Michigan and the woeful lack of oversight and accountability our state exercises when it comes to charters. While some states have outright bans on for-profit schools, 61% of Michigan charter schools are run by for-profit corporations and over a third are in the bottom 25% of academic performance.
One of the main players in the for-profit charter business is National Heritage Academies, Michigan’s largest for-profit school management company. In response to this incredible journalism by the Detroit Free Press, they have purchased pretty much all of the ad space on the front page of the Free Press website this morning. Here’s a screenshot:
Click for a larger version
From the Free Press reporting yesterday:
Michigan far exceeds states like Florida, Ohio and Missouri, where only about one-third of charters were run by a full-service, for-profit management company in 2011-12, according to research by Western Michigan University professor Gary Miron, who has studied charters extensively. [...]State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, who runs the Michigan Department of Education and chairs the state Board of Education, said Michigan’s Legislature must insist on more transparency.But Miron said the trend in Michigan and nationwide seems to be toward less transparency — such as UPDATED: As Detroit Free Press does week-long exposé of charter schools, National Heritage Academies buys up all its ad space | Eclectablog: