Constitution Colleges, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Faucet Coronavirus Aid

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Constitution Colleges, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Faucet Coronavirus Aid

Constitution recipients of the forgivable loans embody rich networks like Summit, whose most up-to-date tax filings present it had belongings total


Constitution recipients of the forgivable loans embody rich networks like Summit, whose most up-to-date tax filings present it had belongings totaling $43 million and an endowment, and it paid its chief govt practically $500,000. The constitution community receives donations from the philanthropic organizations of Mr. Bloomberg and Invoice and Melinda Gates, and the Bezos Household Basis. And its business-savvy California board of administrators contains Meg Whitman, the chief govt of Quibi and former chief govt of eBay.

In lots of instances, constitution faculty leaders have overtly acknowledged that they didn’t apply for the funds as a result of they have been in dire monetary straits. The board chairman of 1 Oakland, Calif., constitution faculty community, Training for Change Public Colleges, mentioned its $5 million mortgage could be a “low-cost type of cash-flow financing.”

In North Carolina, the founding board member of 1 constitution faculty, Pine Springs Preparatory Academy, advised Ms. Burris that it was “like a non-public faculty for rich children” — it accepted $550,000. In Washington, D.C., a number of constitution faculties have refused to say whether or not they took the loans. One San Diego constitution was awarded a $2.25 million mortgage in Could, then laid off a 3rd of its lecturers. One of many phrases of this system is the loans convert to grants if recipients retain or rehire staff.

Dad and mom and researchers in Oakland have tracked about $19 million awarded to charters within the Oakland Unified College District. A report launched Monday by Within the Public Curiosity, a coverage and analysis group that scrutinizes the privatization of public items, discovered that 70 % of the district’s 43 constitution faculties had accepted the funding. Mixed with federal reduction funds obtainable to all public faculties, the report says, the district’s constitution faculties would obtain not less than $23 million in federal funding, which breaks all the way down to a median of practically $2,000 extra per pupil than conventional faculties.

“We’ve got cash for small companies, now we have cash for faculties. And after they’re utilizing each of those sources for a similar want, it’s doing an actual disservice to the group,” mentioned Clare Crawford, a senior coverage adviser on the analysis group.

The report was finished in partnership with a dad or mum group, Dad and mom United for Public Colleges, whose members aggressively tracked the Paycheck Safety Program funds. The group’s co-founder, Kim Davis, got here throughout the constitution funding by chance whereas on a constitution faculty assembly held on Zoom, and mentioned she was “shocked.”



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