For-profit EMO loses its groove in NY

No, i'm not talking about emo. I'm talking about an Education Management Organization, in particular Imagine Schools, formerly Chacellor-Beacon Schools, a for-profit company that runs a bunch of charters.

The Syracuse Post-Standard looked into whether the company is losing ground across the country, something that certainly seems to be the case in New York State. The company was charging the Central New York Charter School for Math and Science high fees, but not delivering the kind of management they needed, leading to the school losing its charter.

By the time the school was forced to close on June 30, it was supposed to have paid Imagine $475,616 for the 2004-05 academic year, according to the charter school's financial statements. That represents a 40 percent increase above the $338,734 annual fee paid the previous year.
"I didn't ever really understand what we paid them to do," said Kelly Norcross, one of 45 teachers at the school who lost their jobs this summer when the state pulled the school's authorization. "At the end of the year, that's when I started seeing them. As far as everyday school, we never saw them."

Yet another argument (as if we needed any more!) against education's profiteers.