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For-profit education is being put under the microscope in the new 鈥楥ashing in on Kids鈥� website, a collaboration between the American Federation of Teachers and In the Public Interest that takes on the five largest for-profit charter school organizations in the country.
The curates news and information about five charter-school operators: K12 Inc., Imagine Schools, White Hat Management, Academica, and Charter Schools USA.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of calling the question: Is the rapid expansion of charter schools about helping kids learn, or about enabling for-profit operators to rake in millions in tax dollars?鈥� said Randi Weingarten, president, in the announcement.
Research from 2011-12 shows that about 65 percent of charters are independent, according to Alex Medler, vice president for policy and advocacy for the . 鈥淭he remainder are split roughly 50/50 among for-profit and non-profit networks,鈥� he indicated. In recent years, charter management organizations, which are non-profit, are growing faster than the education management organizations, which are for-profit.
Kara Kerwin, president of , a Washington organization that advocates for charters and school choice, issued a strong response to the launch today.
"[T]his latest campaign against education reform irresponsibly suggests that profit and student success are mutually exclusive, ignoring the fact that K-12 education in the U.S. is a ,鈥� Kerwin indicated.
Taking the 鈥渁nti-charter鈥� view, Donald Cohen, the executive director of Washington-based , said, 鈥渇or-profit charter schools that operate in the dark without basic public transparency and without strong public control too often put their bottom line ahead of the public interest and high-quality public education.鈥� The focus of Cohen鈥檚 organization is to be a 鈥渞esource center on privatization and responsible contracting,鈥� according to its website.
But Kerwin argued that for-profit charter management firms鈥� 鈥渆ntire business model is predicated on student outcomes.鈥� Their bottom line 鈥渋s for the greater public interest,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not, they will lose business.鈥�
What do you think?