Parents Call in National Firms to Launch New Schools Out of Frustration with Crowded Classrooms, School Boards

Parents call in national education management chains to open public schools of their own due to frustration over crowded classrooms, lagging test scores, inattentive school boards.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Lagging test scores. Crowded classrooms. Inattentive school boards. Aloof superintendents. Parents fed up with some Georgia school districts are partnering with national education management chains to open public schools of their own. The management firms enable parents to open charter schools with national resources.
The number of Georgia schools run by community groups and education management firms is expected grow by 50 percent next fall as six new campuses prepare to open using government money to privatize the daily functions of public schools.

The firms, which charge a management fee, handle the heavy lifting of opening campuses -- sometimes constructing classrooms, developing the curriculum, hiring and training staff and overseeing operations. A few even offer stock options to teachers. Nationally, for-profit education management organizations, or EMOs, oversee more than 500 charter schools, about 10 percent of the charter school population. Their nonprofit cousins in education management have a larger share of the business, overseeing  11.5 percent of charters. Public education is estimated  to be a more than $554 billion industry, according to U.S. Department of Education school funding projections.

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