An Imagine charter school in Melbourne, Florida, got an F grade last year. The school is in trouble not just over grades but over financial struggles. Many of the problems are due to the involvement of the Imagine school's management company in profiting from real estate.
Its real estate arm is called Schoolhouse Finance. There is another company involved called Entertainment Properties Trust. Profit for everyone?
Failure not an option for Imagine charter
"One of Brevard’s original charter schools is undergoing an intensive effort to improve this year after it received an “F” school grade — a damaging assessment that parents blame on staff turnover, classroom disruptions and student behavioral issues last year.
..."Compounding the issue for the K-8 school is a decline in enrollment, which fell from nearly 700 students last fall to close to 400 students. With finances tied to the number of students, the school’s getting fewer taxpayer dollars — leaving it less money to operate, and fixed costs such as $1.4 million in rent eating up a greater percentage of its revenue."
The article points out that 40% of the classrooms are empty, and they have closed off entire sections of the building.
The section of the article called Juggling Property shows examples of the increasing encroachment of companies wanting to profit from education.
"In 2008, Imagine’s real estate arm, Schoolhouse Finance, bought the land for $1.8 million, developed it — and sold it two years later to a Midwestern investment firm for $12.2 million, according to property records.
The Kansas City-based company, Entertainment Properties Trust, leases the building back to Schoolhouse Finance, which sub-leases it for $1.4 million annually to the West Melbourne school."
Imagine Charter Schools have done this before. They sold off 5 schools to Entertainment Properties Trust for a total of 44 million dollars. The owner of that company proudly stated that public charters were “a huge new category” for private real estate investment.
“Public charter schools are now a 4 or 5 percent slice of a couple trillion dollar public education real estate market,” Brain said."
The Melbourne charter school is paying 44% of its funding to the building's lease arrangement. 44%...that's huge. It means there is much less to go for the other parts of educating the students.
More:
Imagine Schools Sell Five Schools
"The company (NYSE: EPR) purchased five new charter schools from Imagine Schools Inc. of Arlington, Va., at a cost of $44 million and agreed to finance expansion of two others at a cost of $4 million.
Entertainment Properties Trust, which is based in Kansas City, will lease the five new schools back to Imagine Schools, a leading operator of public charter schools.
In 2009 these schools got 11 million from the federal government
And in September of this year two other charter schools got over 11 million from Arne Duncan's Department of Education.
Two Local Charter School Networks Get $11M In Federal Grants
The federal government is giving some charter schools in the city a financial boost.
Success Charter Network and KIPP Charter Network have been awarded more than $11 million in grants.
I get livid when I think about how those millions could be going to sustain public education, to keep it alive and healthy for future generations.
Giving taxpayer dollars to private companies while neglecting public schools is something I never expected to happen.