There are 295 charter schools in Michigan. And under a Republican-controlled legislature, 81% of them have contracts with private management companies with no demonstrated interest in detailing how they spend taxpayer dollars. Those management companies aren’t accountable to laws requiring them to detail just how much of the $1.4 billion they collected in state funding is going to education versus profit, Chalkbeat Detroit reported.
“What you get is a lump sum,” state Superintendent Michael Rice said during a board meeting the nonprofit news organization covered. “What the management company does with that lump is what it thinks it needs to do to provide that range of services. We don’t have access to the individual line items.”
It’s almost as if former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ wildest money-making dream for her home state is starting to come true.
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