Whose Opportunity? Profiting Off School Turnaround & Takeover in Atlanta
This November, Georgia voters will decide whether to approve or reject Governor Nathan Deal's proposed “Opportunity School District” (OSD). Modeled on similar initiatives in Louisiana and Tennessee, where state takeover districts turned a majority of traditional public schools into charters, the OSD would enable the state to seize control of up to 100 “failing” schools for between five and 10 years.
Rise Up Georgia, along with our partners at the Center for Popular Democracy, have released a report detailing how the OSD would pave the way for privately-run charter schools and potential profiteering, while stripping power from communities of color and likely producing marginal, if any, academic improvements.
The report also explores how the board of Atlanta Public Schools (APS) has adopted policies intended to avoid school takeover, should the OSD pass, that actually create some of the same harmful consequences and private profiteering as the OSD itself.
Click here to download the full report.
Key findings from the report include:
Takeover districts have not produced the dramatic results promised in other states:
■■ test scores move up and down;
■■ metrics are altered from year to year, confounding meaningful comparisons;
■■ takeover districts do not necessarily improve any faster than locally-controlled districts;
■■ absolute standards may still remain low.
The OSD overwhelmingly targets neighborhood schools in Black and Brown communities:
■■ Within APS, 95 percent of all students enrolled across the 26 schools eligible for OSD takeover district are Black, compared to only68 percent of those students enrolled in schools not eligible for takeover.
■■ 95 percent of those students are eligible for free and reduced lunch, compared to 69 percent in non-takeover schools.
■■ These schools have been particularly hard hit by budget cuts; between 2003 and 2015, the Georgia's governors cut $8.4 billion from education spending; in APS, state funding per pupil dropped by 26.7 percent between 2002 and 2015, compared to a statewide average of 12 percent.
While students lose out, private interests profit from public assets when takeover schools are turned into charters:
■■ Public land sales
New charters tend to get bargain basement rates on surplus school buildings. For example, KIPP Metro Atlanta bought one of its properties from APS at a 61.5 percent discount on the appraised value.
■■ Tax-exempt bond financing
In 2014, DeKalb County issued $14 million in public, tax exempt bonds to Ivy Prep Academy for the purchase of a strip mall where it housed its Kirkwood campus. Less than a year later, three schools within the Ivy Prep network were operating at a deficit and one was slated for closure. Meanwhile, taxpayer dollars are paid to the bond-holder, Hamlin Capital, which specializes in high-interest charter school bonds. A Hamlin executive had previously donated $25,000 in support of a statewide referendum to re-establish the State Charter School Commission, which approved Ivy Prep's charter.
■■ Education Management Organizations (EMOs)
When charter school management is outsourced to a private management organization, there are numerous ways taxpayer dollars are siphoned off for profit. Atlanta Heights Charter School is operated by the for-profit EMO National Heritage Academies. All of the school's revenue ($5.57 million in 2014) goes back to it's parent company––29 percent alone is for facility expenses. That's twice as much as the percentage advised by the Georgia Department of Education. This arrangement is even more questionable given that National Heritage Academies bought the Atlanta Heights property for only $393,500––19 times less than the appraised value of the land and the building.
Even though voters have not yet approved the OSD, private interests are already capitalizing on the threat the OSD poses:
■■ Erin Hames
As Governor Deal's policy advisor, Hames crafted legislation to create a referendum on the OSD. A few months after it passed, APS awarded Hames a no-bid, $96,000 contract to help turn around schools that are eligible for takeover. Hames still works for Deal as a private adviser under a $30,000 contract.
■■Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Four pro-charter foundations donated $502,000 to APS to hire this international consulting firm to conduct an eight-week study of school turnaround strategies. The managing partner at Atlanta's BCG office is a former board member of the KIPP charter school franchise. Unsurprisingly, the study recommended that APS consider contracting with charter school management organizations, and named KIPP as a good choice.
■■The Cousins Family
Atlanta real estate mogul Tom Cousins and his daughter, Lilian Giornelli, head a family foundation that contributed funds to the BCG study. Another of their foundations controls APS's Drew Charter School, and shares an office with Erin Hames' new consulting firm. Cousins recently created a nonprofit organization, called Purpose Built Schools, to replicate the Drew model.
After this report went to press, APS announced that it would contract with Purpose Built Schools to manage schools in the Carver Cluster.
■■ HB 740
Additionally, a bill recently introduced by State Representative Beth Beskin uses the APS turnaround strategy as a launchpad for real estate profiteering. HB 740 would create an income tax credit of $15,000 over five years to people who purchase and live in homes within the attendance zone of a school ranked among the lowest achieving five percent in the state. This includes the Carver cluster, where an organization closely affiliated with the Cousins family, called Charis Community Housing, dominates real estate sales.
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Rise Up is committed to ensuring that all children have access to strong public schools that provide high-quality education, address the full-range of student needs, engage parents, teachers and community members in decision-making and are both transparent and accountable to the communities they serve.
We believe that the best way to achieve this vision is by building a strong base of parents, youth, students, educators, school staff, and community members to fight for a system of publicly-funded, equitable and democratically-controlled public schools.