Federal grant of nearly quarter million a year going to a charter school on probation... [View All]

[madfloridian]

It was put on probation just a short while ago. Maybe the DOE doesn't know that yet.

Yes, that is a federal grant going to Imagine MASTer Academy in Indiana. Our money, taxpayer money. Going to a school which was written up by the Ft. Wayne Journal in 3 segments.

Money that will not be going to help struggling public schools. Imagine Charters are NOT non-profit, though they have tried since 2005 and claim to be so. They are a for-profit group.

Cutting Imagine a Check

Remember: Imagine MASTer Academy was put on probation just a few months ago by their authorizer after the good folks at the Journal Gazette wrote up a three-part series on the various troubles with the school ( Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Imagine MASTer teachers are paid over $10k less than their Indiana counterparts.

Here's a quick rundown of where the money is really going at Imagine MASTer Academy: $342,757 in "professional services" to Imagine Schools, Inc. (the for-profit arm), $746,144 for occupancy (owned by Entertainment Properties Trust), and according to their most recent 990 tax form (07-08), the school was operating $268,711 in the red. For a little more icing on this cake, the 990 also says the school owed $760,513 for "capital lease obligations" to - you guessed it - Imagine Schools, Inc.

More on this from the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette:

As part of the grant, the school will receive $229,800 each year for five years

The Imagine MASTer Academy on Wells Street has received a unique federal grant the school will use to help pay its rent.

As part of the grant, the school will receive $229,800 each year for five years, Jason Bryant, vice president of Imagine Schools, told the board Wednesday. Bryant said Indiana and California were the only states to receive the federal money, earmarked for charter schools. He said Indiana was given $30 million for the program.

“This is a very unique situation, historically,” said Guy Platter, regional director for Imagine Schools. Platter and Bryant said the board will use the money to pay rent so that it can free up money in the schools’ general fund for staff salaries and other expenses.

The U.S. Department of Education said the purpose of the grant program, called State Charter School Facilities Incentive Grants, is to assist charter schools with facility costs and therefore aid in the creation of charter schools. The Department of Education website cites a 2000 national study of charter schools finding that inadequate facilities are one of the major obstacles to creating charters.

This is a school that fired a principal for questioning dealings of the school with its own real estate arm. They just fired him.

'Too many questions'

'Too many questions'

Bruce Greening, a former principal at Imagine MASTer Academy in Fort Wayne, Ind., said Imagine required him to pay $650,000 a year to rent a 28-acre campus valued at $3.4 million. But the school used only two buildings on the sprawling property, he said.

"Obviously, I thought the rent was kind of steep," he said. "But I had no choice, because it was part of the company's procedures. We couldn't go anywhere else."

He was fired, as was another principal who questioned the policy.

One of the Imagine Schools, the one in St. Pete is a million in debt to the parent company. Guess who will be paying the tab? That's right....the taxpayers.

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.

"It's a death spiral," said district charter supervisor Dot Clark.

This charter school chain has multiple problems, and I listed only part of them.

Why is one of these schools going to get almost a quarter million in taxpayer in a federal grant every year for 5 years?

It is an outrage. It is shocking it is being done while Democrats control the White House and Congress. It infuriates me to see public schools being put down and defunded while charter schools with so many problems get all that federal money.

Outrageous.