More on the business of charter schools in Pennsylvania

By Derek Black
October 7, 2014 - 2:00 pm CDT

Patrick J. Gallo, Jr., Reforming the "Business" of Charter Schools in Pennsylvania, 2014 B.Y.U. Educ. & L.J. 207 (2014).

Gallo addresses the current state of the charter school system in Pennsylvania and the need for reform. Summarizing some of the serious issues facing the charter system in Pennsylvania, the author states:

There are now more than 175 charter schools in Pennsylvania with over 105,000 students and approximately 44,000 more students on waiting lists. In addition, roughly 25 percent of the student population in the Philadelphia School District attend public charter schools. Moreover, government financed charter schools present a significant opportunity for profiteers looking to cash in on this modern day "gold rush," and, with very little oversight, Pennsylvania public charter schools have become fraught with "chicanery and greed . . . [,] excessive executive salaries . . . [,] nepotism, and [dubious] financial and real-estate transactions.

Specifically, the article discusses, in depth, "the loopholes in the Charter School Law that allow entrepreneurs to squeeze profits and draw off tax dollars, as well as the consequences of minimal charter school oversight," and the recent legislative efforts to close such loopholes and reform the system by attacking the problems from the business side of charter schools. The author analyzes the current Charter School Law in Pennsylvania to show where these loopholes have created in the revenue stream and oversight of charter schools. Because of the gaps in the law, "[p]rofiteers have hijacked the charter school movement, siphoning public funds, pocketing efficiency costs, and squeezing profits in what has evolved into a metaphorical 'educational gold rush.'"

For more go to: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/

Derek Black is a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina, where his research and teaching focus on equal educational opportunity. You could is faculty page at http://law.sc.edu/faculty/black/

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