Philadelphia cyber charter school

For this week’s Back Story, education reporter Kristen Taketa explains how and why she has covered the Inspire charter school network’s practices.Q: Why did you start looking into Inspire?I started looking into Inspire because of the A3 charter indictment. That indictment charged two A3 Education executives with allegedly creating a fraudulent statewide system of charter schools. One of those schools was Valiant Prep, a school authorized by Dehesa School District here in San Diego. Valiant’s website had posted a searchable list of vendors. Valiant said families can choose how to spend enrichment funds provided by the school, as much as $3,200 a year. This enrichment fund model intrigued me, so I searched online to learn more about home school charters. I found blog posts written by homeschooling moms that listed California charter schools that give out funds and how much. One name that kept popping up with glowing recommendations was Inspire. I also noticed that … [Read more...] about Back story: Investigating the Inspire home charter schools

The duty to watchdog multiple charter schools involved in a recent alleged charter school scam lay on the shoulders of Dehesa School District, a tiny district that consists of a single elementary school with 138 students in the hills of east San Diego County. In May 11 people were indicted in connection with a statewide charter school scheme that prosecutors said funneled $50 million into the pockets of two executives of A3 Education. Three of the A3 charter schools were authorized and overseen by Dehesa. In a statement, the district defended its authorization of its several charter schools. “The Dehesa School District approved the charter schools believing we were making educational options available to students who could benefit from instruction in non-traditional settings,” the district said in a statement. “We recognize that several charter school reforms have been initiated at the state level, and our District is committed to ensuring legal compliance with all … [Read more...] about Dehesa School District profited by cultivating charter schools

The charter school self-dealing scheme alleged in a recent San Diego County indictment is the latest example of how legal loopholes incentivize small school districts to provide little to no oversight of charter schools, critics say.Prosecutors accused two charter school leaders, Sean McManus and Jason Schrock, of A3 Education, of creating a network of 19 schools that effectively funneled $50 million in public funds into their own pockets. All 11 named defendants in the indictment, except for McManus, have pleaded not guilty. McManus is at large, prosecutors say. The A3 charter schools were all online schools, authorized to operate by small school districts, which were supposed to hold them accountable. The districts were paid by the charter schools to oversee them, but they faced few repercussions if the charter schools and their many students did poorly. Most of those students do not live in the authorizing districts. The districts “are not incentivized to do any meaningful … [Read more...] about Some small school districts profit from charter schools