"the charter school should be notified that if no payment is made towards the unpaid debt, then their charter is in danger of being revoked." - Board District 2 Candidate Dr. Rocio Rivas
The latest summary released last week by the LAUSD Charter School Division shows that only $13,437 was paid by charter schools towards past-due overallocation fees during the past month. The students of the district are still owed $13,745,310 for public school space assigned to charter schools under PROP-39 above what they were entitled to based on their actual enrollment.
As in previous months, Apex Academy paid $10,104, reducing their balance to $92,020. Ocean Charter School paid $3,333 towards a $1,205,157 debt that was incurred from 2016 through 2019. If they continue repaying their bill at this rate of pay, it will take them over 360 months (30 years) to fully pay it off. While these funds are supposed to go almost entirely to the schools where the overallocation occurred, the LAUSD students affected by the unwarranted disruption to their education by Ocean Charter will never be compensated. Their own children may be out of school by the time the money is received.
Among the charter schools that still owe the district money is WISH Academy High School. This school overestimated its enrollment in three consecutive school years from 2017 to 2020. They were invoiced $424,326 by the LAUSD using a state-mandated formula but have not paid any of it, even after receiving one to two million dollars from the PPP program that was supposed to keep small businesses from crashing at the beginning of the COVID crisis. This has not stopped the district from moving to close down Wright Middle School, reportedly "to give the space entirely to WISH charter." Wright has been a neighborhood school for 66 years.
Despite promising the LAUSD Board "to pay what we owe" the Citizens of the World nationwide chain of charter schools did not pay any of its $1,068,684 debt. Even though the chain's Hollywood franchise was renewed based on a commitment to pay, the district has not made any public move to revoke its charter after the payment failed to materialize.
Given the LAUSD Board's failure to meet their fiduciary duty to collect the money owed to the students of the district, it is important for the electorate to know how the candidates in the June 7, 2022, primary election view this debt. To help gather this information, the following email was sent to all candidates who have currently registered with the Los Angeles Ethics Department:
As of December 15, 2021, charter schools owe the LAUSD $13,758,747 for unpaid overallocation fees. Some of this debt is years old. All of it is past due.
- Do you support revoking the charter of any school that has ongoing unpaid debt?
- What steps do you support to ensure that these funds are collected on behalf of LAUSD students?
- Should Megan Reilly face consequences for failing to collect this debt?
- Should Jose Cole-Gutierrez face consequences for failing to collect this debt?
- What reforms, if any, would you like made to the PROP-39 process?
Please feel free to include any thoughts that you have on this subject.
For background information please see the following articles:
- Charter School Debt Continues To Grow
- Charter Schools Pay Down A Minuscule Amount Of Debt
- Charter Schools Pile On The Debt
Below are the links to the answers that have been received by three of the candidates. Unfortunately, responses have not been received by the two incumbents in this election. Apparently, Kelly Gonez and Nick Melvoin do not feel that their constituents deserve to know why they have failed to collect this debt for the children of Los Angeles.
"-Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He is an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and serves as the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
