LADY LIBERTY: Why is Murphy covering up Christie’s $10 million loan to failing charter school?
The New Jersey state education department has refused to release public documents that might shed light on former Gov. Chris Christie’s loan of $10 million in state funds to a failing Newark charter school and its partner, a private, for-profit real estate developer that was receiving more than $800,000 in public funds as annual rent from the school.
The state’s action, in response to a demand filed under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), contributes to a stifling veil of silence covering up the details of the unusual $10 million loan—a loan granted by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) despite the lack of any collateral that could be used to repay the loan if the school defaulted.
The school, Lady Liberty Academy Charter School, did close and no longer receives the state aid it needs to pay its rent to the developer, BWP School Partners, LLC. Under the unusual terms of the loan agreement between the NJEDA and BWP, the state has limited its ability to recoup the loan from the developer to finding a new charter school to take the place of Lady Liberty. The school is now boarded up and so, this year at least, that won’t happen.
The existence of the unusual $10 million loan was first disclosed by this site last month but the continued refusal by the NJEDA, the state education department, the Newark school district and private sources to discuss details has added to the mystery of why the state would loan $10 million to a charter school that faced problems since 2003, when it was opened as part of Newark’s New Community Corporation’s social outreach efforts. Lady Liberty was placed on probation by the state three times and finally closed this year after Christie left office.
So that’s the first question that no one at the state or elsewhere wants to answer:
Why would the NJEDA invest $10 million in a school that its state Continue reading: LADY LIBERTY: Why is Murphy covering up Christie’s $10 million loan to failing charter school?
