NYT in-depth piece on Dennis & Eileen Bakke, founders of charter Imagine Schools

[alp227]

For Charter School Company, Issues of Money and Control
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: April 23, 2010

When the energy executive Dennis Bakke retired with a fortune from the AES Corporation, the company he co-founded, he and his wife, Eileen, decided to direct their attention and money to education.

Mrs. Bakke, a former teacher, said she had been interested in education since the summer she was a 12-year-old and, together with a friend, opened the Humpty Dumpty Day School, charging $2 a week in “tuition” to parents of the children attending. Mr. Bakke was eager to experiment with applying business strategies and discipline to public schools.

The Bakkes became part of the nation’s new crop of education entrepreneurs, founding a commercial charter school company called Imagine Schools. Beginning with one failed charter school company they acquired in 2004, they have built an organization that has contracts with 71 schools in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Imagine is now the largest commercial manager of charter schools in the country.

But as Imagine continues to expand, it is coming under growing scrutiny from school boards and state regulators questioning how public money is spent and whether the company exerts too much control over the schools.

The concerns are being raised as charters, designed by education reformers to create alternatives to hidebound and failing public schools, are becoming an indelible part of the nation’s education landscape. Such schools are among the biggest beneficiaries of the billions of dollars the Obama administration plans to spend to improve public education.

Because public money is used, most states grant charters to run such schools only to nonprofit groups with the expectation that they will exercise the same independent oversight that public school boards do. Some are run locally. Some bring in nonprofit management chains. And a number use commercial management companies like Imagine.

But regulators in some states have found that Imagine has elbowed the charter holders out of virtually all school decision making — hiring and firing principals and staff members, controlling and profiting from school real estate, and retaining fees under contracts that often guarantee Imagine’s management in perpetuity.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/education/24imagine.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Or, you can wait and pick up tomorrow's NYT (at least the New York edition); this is a front-page article.

[mzteris]

1. 80% of all charters are run locally

10% are run by "non-profit chains"

10% are run by "for-profit management companies. The percentage gets smaller every year. BTB - "for-profit management companies also run traditional public schools.

Also - all charter schools are still non-profit public schools, regardless of who the management is.


I'm not a big fan of the "box" type form of management. I like the local variety.

The state laws governing the establishment, governance, and accountability of their charter schools is one of the most important pieces.

Bad schools should be closed. Bad administrators and bad teachers fired. People bilking the system should be arrested.

Of course these things happen in every school district in the country from time to time - regardless of whether it is a charter program, traditional, private, or religious. Let's not penalize the kids who benefit from their alternative form of education because of some unscrupulous people. You know, that whole baby/bathwater thing...

[Hannah Bell]

3. your cut & paste is false.

[Catshrink]

2. Good. These education profiteers must be exposed.