How for-profit charter schools are ripping off California taxpayers
Across California and the country, corporations are expanding their ownership and operation of charter schools and their profits, subsidized by taxpayers.
In California, 34 charter schools operated by five for-profit education management organizations enroll about 25,000 students. These for-profit charter schools siphon hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money away from students to generate massive corporate profits, and in many cases provide an inferior education.
They exploit loopholes in California’s charter school law allowing them to cheat our students and reap huge profits at taxpayer expense.
We have a long way to go before California’s public education system is adequately funded and cannot afford to line shareholder pockets with scarce state revenues.
The Legislature has the opportunity to fix this flaw in state law. Assembly Bill 406, authored by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers, would prohibit for-profit corporations from operating public charter schools. The bill was approved by the Assembly on Wednesday and now heads to the state Senate.
It is estimated that California taxpayers provide these companies with more than $225 million a year with little public transparency or accountability.
K12 Inc., the state’s largest for-profit education management organization, received $310 million in state funding over the past dozen years. In 2016, it reported revenue of $872 million, including $89 million paid to its Wall Street investors.
It pays millions to top executives while its average teacher salary is $36,000, thanks to heavy CONTINUE READING: How for-profit charter schools are ripping off California taxpayers