Many Charter Schools Are A Mess With No Accountability

by Gary Snyder

A StarNews analysis of documents provided by the North Carolina Charter Day School Inc. shows that the nonprofit group owns very little, if any, of the land, buildings, furniture or equipment used by its three schools. Instead, the schools rent most of their material goods from founder Baker Mitchell's two for-profit companies – Roger Bacon Academy and Coastal Habitat Conservancy.

For the 2013-14 school year, Charter Day School in Leland and Columbus Charter School in Whiteville paid Mitchell's Roger Bacon Academy about $1.5 million to lease their buildings. As part of their contract, the schools also agreed to pay property taxes and insurance, which totaled another $90,000; and building upkeep, for another $200,000.

Mitchell leads the company that manages the schools and the company that rents equipment to the schools and is an officer on the schools' decision-making board. It appears to be a closed loop of circulating money that all ends up in the management company Mr. Mitchell owns.

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