Reply to Mayor Plans to Underfund Charter Schools

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Reply to "Mayor Plans to Underfund Charter Schools"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oh no, BASIS’ shareholders might not make the profit they want next year![/quote]

BASIS DC is a nonprofit. All of the BASIS.ed schools are. Not to let "facts" get in the way or anything. [/quote]

LOL, yes, let's talk about facts.

BASIS DC is a non-profit that pays fees to the BASIS for-profit for instruction, administration and then also rents the space from them. BASIS is a highly-leveraged real estate business that uses "non profit" charter schools to siphon taxpayer money to shareholders in Arizona. It's a racket. 
[/quote]

The charter I'm in pays DC to rent a former DCPS school building -- a school building that had been fully paid for years ago. Is that a racket too?[/quote]

I'm not the PP railing against BASIS, but even I can see that there is a functional difference between a non-profit charter paying rent to a government entity (the school district). That rent money goes back into public coffers and likely helps to maintain other public schools and contributes to the education of other public school children.

The PP's point is that BASIS is a for-profit corporate entity that owns the building that the "non-profit" BASIS charter is in, and that the charter uses tax payer funds to pay rent to the for-profit entity. That money then goes to the corporation and its shareholders. Depending on what the corporation charges the non-profit for rent, there is opportunity there for corporate enrichment at the expense of public school kids. This is something people complain about with charters a lot -- what percent of their public funds go toward paying teachers who are actually educating the kids, versus administrative salaries? You hear this complaint often about charters that aren't BASIS, especially if they struggle to retain teachers or there are questions about the teaching quality. Well the way BASIS is structured exacerbates that tension because it's not just a question of administrator salaries, but all the money BASIS pays to their corporate parent for rent, curriculum, etc., and how that money is managed and allocated. It raises questions about whether the school is making decisions primarily in the best interests of students, or the best interests of the for-profit corporate parent.[/quote]

You know what else raise questions? Paying six figure salaries to DCPS teachers, including gym teachers, and getting student test scores that are worse than Mississippi's. [/quote]

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