Charter Schools May Have Double-Dipped as Much as $1 Billion in PPP Loans

[truthout.org]

{(Another charter school grant program of DeVos’ devising allegedly blew a billion dollars on schools that never opened or shut down after receiving federal money.)}

I've covered this in the past. Some of these schools in the past didn't even finish ground breaking, let alone the building of the school. And this shit is still allowed to go on. And most likely within the same corporate structure and or a simple name change, where the same people are basically having our tax dollars handed over to them freely. While the local schools and societies in these areas are left to rot.

{Organizations don’t have to pay back their PPP loans if certain employee retention criteria are met. At least 15 charter schools that reported receiving more than $1 million in payroll protection from the government reported putting that money towards zero jobs. At least seven of the schools left the field blank.}

In other words. These organizations have absolutely no one conducting oversight to determine the money is being properly used. The money is simply able to be filtered directly to the CEO's and share holders.

{One school, Idaho Arts Charter School, Inc., received between $1 million and $2 million in forgivable relief loans, and reported putting it towards one job.}

I rest my case.

{Charter schools operate in a gray area: They’re publicly funded and are technically public schools, but are privately owned and managed. Most are nonprofits, but some are backed by companies — and both of those categories are eligible for PPP loans.}

Do you really believe no one is profiting from tax dollars? Yea, I don't either. I call it theft.

{Though charter schools are taxpayer-funded, they operate under independent boards, and largely beyond public oversight. This raises questions of whether they behave more like public entities or private companies, and has made them the target of congressional Democrats, who cite widespread instances of fraud, corruption and other scandals.}

Yea, sorry to be the bearer of bad news to you. The democrats knew full well what they would be getting from Betsy DeVos when they confirmed her appointment into this administration, relatively with no fight against her.

{In June, DeVos issued a rule that required public schools to share federal coronavirus relief funds with private and religious schools. The rule could increase funds available to private schools from $127 million to $1.5 billion.

While charter schools could and did draw from other parts of the CARES Act, however, public schools could not.}

And there it is.