Both houses of the legislature have passed the bill to allow expansion of charter schools in Indiana. Although much decried by the government education establishment, its effect will mainly be felt in urban districts where government schools are "under performing". Those areas already have charters in place. Establishing a new school is a difficult task, especially to serve the population in urban areas. The best outcome would be for the existing charters to stabilize and improve their operations before seeing a new wave of schools being opened. We may also see some failing government schools taken over by the IDE under the provisions of PL 221 and given to charter operators. That mechanism, rather than new charters, is the best means to put pressure on government schools to change.
Meanwhile the JG continues to beat a dead horse, attacking for profit charter operators for paying no property taxes on their schools. Charters got no funding for obtaining their buildings or fixing them up to serve as schools. To recoup that outlay they have come up with various arrangements like sales and leasebacks. They have increase the value of the property, but in the case of for profit operators are being challenged in court over property tax liability. This situation incenses Karen Frisco who wrote a long, excruciatingly detailed piece on the topic in the Sunday Perspective.
Fine, let for profit charters pay property taxes. No problem, end of story.
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If Karen Francisco's argument is that charters should pay property taxes on their schools if the school is managed by a for-profit entity, does she think that taxpayers would benefit?
Taxpayers are the owners of public charter schools just as they are the owners of traditional pubic schools. The fact that the board of a charter school hires a management company to handle the day-to-day operations of the school doesn't change the fact that taxpayers still own the charter.
It also doesn't change the fact that taxpayers fund the entire operation of the charter. If we add property taxes to the bill, who are we hurting? Taxpayers. It makes no sense for taxpayers to charge themselves another tax bill -- unless, of course, you're looking for a back-door way for charters to fund failing traditional public schools.
It's like the city of Fort Wayne's Light Lease "windfall." The press mindlessly touts the mayor's "victory" in securing this huge pile of money from I&M. Really? Is I&M going into its piggy bank to pay this windfall? Are I&M shareholders going to fork over a chunk of their profits? Or is I&M going to hike our electric bills? You guessed it. All taxpayers have won is the opportunity to tax themselves.
Francisco's indictment of for-profit education management companies is equally shallow. The purist notion that the public should be overly suspicious of public education dollars being spent with for-profit companies is naive. For-profit companies like Scholastic and McGraw Hill make profits off school districts that dwarf anything education management companies earn, and Scholastic and McGraw Hill take no responsibility for student outcomes. No one complains.
Local builders make large sums on school construction projects. An outside, for-profit company cleans FWCS school buildings. As your blog reported, FWCS wants to hire an outside p.r. firm to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars despite the fact that taxpayers already foot the bill for an in-house marketing team. No one complains.
Well, no one complains unless it's the Journal Gazette - and the JG only complains if it's in connection to charter schools.
Charging property taxes to public charter school might appear courageous but it's actually harmful to taxpayers and students.
Nicely said anonymous...and Code Blue...even if the Charter Schools pay taxes Frisco would still find something to complain about...she must feel like a kid in a candy store with the opportunity for more charters to move in to Ft Wayne. She will be living at the paper with so much new and exciting information for all of us tax payers I have no idea how I will sleep at night with all of this excitement...just kidding. The JG needs to get some real stories out there...something that REALLY matters. This week she has the American Quality Schools to bitch about, last week it was Imagine Schools again..(Wendy must still be interrested in that property. With her her salary paid with GASP! Tax Payer money she could buy it outright). Who will it be next week? God forbid it should be something that "really matters"
Well, in today's Perspective she went after a member of the state board of education, who runs a charter school in Gary, who alledgedly plagiarized her PhD thesis. Naturally this was another implied indictment of the IDE and the charter school crowd. Which in this case was also an indictement of a black, female Dr. of Education. A balanced perspective would call for an article on Wendy, but she's infallible.
Anybody want to buy Elmhurst for $1and start a charter high school?
I am quite sure that there will be "loopholes" surrounding that property for $1 that we so not know about....how about the EACS Village Woods building? When they were offered "real" cash for that Imagine was turned down....now they can have it for $1....stupid move on EACS part.
One needs to see how Imagine is really running things! Let's see Imagine MASTer Academy is paying $750,000 per year in rent, for unlimited year to who? The for-profit real estate company of Imagine.
The property is only worth $4 million.
So, in spite of the $750,000/yr. how much is it costing the taxpayers to educate each student at Imagine compared to FWCS?
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20110504_Monica_Yant_Kinney__Whistle-blowing_principal_reflects_on_what_happens_when_schools_cheat.html
Makes me wonder about certain administrators right here in Fort Wayne? Do I suspect cheating in FWCS? You bet, I do!
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