Chartered for Profit, a report by the Network for Public Education, highlights significant issues with for- profit EMOs, like Academica. While technically prohibited from directly running charter schools, EMOs exploit legal loopholes by setting up nonprofit boards that function as mere fronts, allowing EMOs to control school operations and finances. Chartered for Profit details how EMOs engage in self-dealing, where related-party transactions funnel public funds into privately owned real estate and service contracts, often with little oversight. The lack of transparency and accountability in these arrangements undermines the original mission of charter schools and diverts taxpayer dollars away from classrooms and student learning.
Last year, NSEA and WEA opposed the expansion of Academica’s Mater Academy into the North Valleys in Reno. The new Mater Academy is slated to be built immediately next to WCSD’s Alice Smith Elementary School, a WCSD school currently at 72% capacity. The SPCSA approval process had no regard for the students and educators at Alice Smith Elementary School or any school in the Washoe County School District. In fact, WCSD notified the SPSCA that a new 1460 seat charter school in that location would cause the closure of at least one school at the elementary level. It’s painfully clear that profit motive and not community interest drove the decision to site Mater Academy in that location.
NSEA asks for your opposition to AB435.
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