ProPublica has published an article on charter schools. We tend to think of charter schools as locally run schools like Pensacola Beach Elementary, but the majority aren’t. The ProPublica article highlights White Hat —the same company that John Wyche used to run his LifeSkills school.
Government data suggest that schools with for-profit managers have somewhat worse academic results than charters without management companies, and a number of boards have clashed with managers over a lack of transparency in how they are using public funds.
White Hat has achieved particularly poor results, with only 2 percent of its students making the progress expected under federal education law.
The article states that only one of the 51 schools White Hat managed in 2010 met a key standard established by the No Child Left Behind law—called “Adequate Yearly Progress.â€
Without strong local boards and transparency, charter schools are cash-making machines that fail to serve the children. Read more.