An F-rated St. Petersburg charter school stands on the verge of collapse, mired in debt and losing enrollment. And most of those debts — around $1 million in public tax dollars — are owed to the same private company that founded it.
Pinellas County district officials say they're battling with Virginia-based Imagine Schools, the nation's largest commercial charter operator, over the future of the Central Avenue school. The school was $963,572 in deficit last spring, according to auditors. It's paying $881,179 to lease a half-empty building from Imagine's real estate affiliate, plus thousands more for equipment, administration and fees, on income of just $2 million a year...
Pinellas officials are now joining districts across Florida — including Hillsborough and Pasco — in raising doubts about whether the company is running its schools as nonprofits, as required by state law.
Those districts are lining up to oppose new state rules being discussed this week in Tallahassee. They fear the rules would expand the definition of nonprofit, solidifying Imagine's position and potentially opening the floodgates to abuses by for-profit charter school companies...
"They put this incredible burden on schools, and use tax money to pay it back."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/as-st-petersburg-school-founders-districts-question-imagine-schools-status/1093760Ha-ha! "Charter schools are public schools!" Get 'em in debt with overcharges then demand taxpayer money to repay the debt!
What you should know first is that in Florida, for-profit companies can run charter schools, even though charter schools are publicly funded and are, by state law, supposed to be run according to the federal rules for non-profits. Imagine is a for-profit management company, with a real estate arm, Schoolhouse Finance.
The current trouble in Pinellas is over the Central Avenue School in St. Petersburg...The Times says that auditors discovered that the school was almost $1 million in debt last spring, though it pays $881,179 to lease a half-empty building from--can you guess?--Schoolhouse Finance.
The question now being raised by the county, as well as other school districts in the state, is whether Imagine runs its schools as federal non-profit organizations, as it says it does. Imagine doesn’t actually have non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service, thought it has sought that designation for five years; it just promises to operate the schools as if it were. Imagine says that it can run schools less expensively and more effectively than public districts do.
The Department of Education went ahead and wrote new proposed rules that would, the Times wrote, solidify Imagine’s standing in the state.
But some school districts in the state, including Pinellas and Miami-Dade, are crying foul, concerned that the new rules will attract more for-profit companies into the state to open charter schools.
In fact, districts in other states are concerned about how Imagine runs its charter schools as well.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/charter-schools/charter-schools-is-this-the-wa.htmlIMAGINE CALLS ITSELF A "NON-PROFIT"
http://www.hoovers.com/company/Imagine_Schools_Inc/rfyhyki-1.htmlYes, when charter school advocates tell you "most charter schools are non-profits," this 71-school chain operating in multiple states is one of the "non-profits" they're talking about....
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