Charter Schools in the Hotseat

Here’s In the Public Interest’s pick of recent news in for-profit education. Not a subscriber? Sign up. For more from Cashing in on Kids, visit our website.

• A “systemic failure to provide them a free appropriate public education, in violation of their rights.” A lawsuit filed on behalf of five special education students at a New York City charter school contends that Achievement First, a network with charter schools in NYC, Connecticut and Rhode Island, did not provide students with physical therapy and other services for weeks at a time. New York Times

• Hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone missing. The director of a charter school in Michigan has been suspended while school officials await a forensic audit. Why? Hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing from the budget of the Sarah J. Webber Media Arts Academy, which opened just two years ago. Oakland Press News

• It’s as if online students did not attend school at all. A study released by the pro-charter Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that students attending virtual charter schools learn significantly less in math and reading than similar students attending brick-and-mortar schools. So significantly less that the Washington Post’s Lyndsey Layton wrote, “In other words, when it comes to math, it’s as if the [online] students did not attend school at all.” In the Public Interest

• If you build it they will come. Vacant office, industrial and retail properties have become a new niche asset for some private real estate developers looking to turn them into charter schools. One such investor is former tennis star Andre Agassi, who is hoping to raise $400 million with the help of an investment manager. Wall Street Journal

• ICYMI. Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy has attracted increased scrutiny after the New York Times highlighted how a charter in New York City put struggling and high-needs students on a “got to go” list. The charter actively worked to push these students out of school with excessive suspensions and by threatening to call the police. New York Times