Charter schools, corporations cheat kids, spend millions on trips, strip clubs

Charter schools are cheating our children. Brace yourselves: Over 100 million dollars meant for our kids have been misused, lost or stolen by charter operators and corporations. Why? Because there is no regulation. We all know how the repugican cabal and corporate America hate regulations, and this is why.

Privatization gives greedy, corporate types all kinds of opportunities. For instance, the opportunity to use taxpayer funds meant for students; they're using that money, our money, to pay for house renovations, outings to strip clubs, and vacations to Atlantic City.
How in the world can we keep giving money to people (because we all know that corporations are people, my friend) who do this? How in the world can Americans keep supporting-- and voting for-- these pigs?
By the way, the report covers what "might just be the tip of the" proverbial iceberg, focusing on a mere fifteen of the forty-two states that have charter school laws.
Paul Rosenberg at Salon has the story:

    While there are plenty of other troubling issues surrounding charter schools-from high rates of racial segregation, to their lackluster overall performance records, to questionable admission and expulsion practices-this report sets all those admittedly important issues aside to focus squarely on activity that appears it could be criminal, and arguably totally out of control. It does not even mention questions raised by sky-high salaries paid to some charter CEOs, such as 16 New York City charter school CEOs who earned more than the head of the city's public school system in 2011-12. Crime, not greed, is the focus here. [...]
    [The report] organized the abuse into six basic categories, each of which is treated in its own section:
    • Charter operators using public funds illegally for personal gain;
    • School revenue used to illegally support other charter operator businesses;
    • Mismanagement that puts children in actual or potential danger;
    • Charters illegally requesting public dollars for services not provided;
    • Charter operators illegally inflating enrollment to boost revenues; and,
    • Charter operators mismanaging public funds and schools.
    Perhaps most disturbingly, under the first category, crooked charter school officials displayed a wide range of lavish, compulsive or tawdry tastes. Examples include:
    • Joel Pourier, former CEO of Oh Day Aki Heart Charter School in Minnesota, who embezzled $1.38 million from 2003 to 2008. He used the money on houses, cars, and trips to strip clubs. Meanwhile, according to an article in the Star Tribune, the school "lacked funds for field trips, supplies, computers and textbooks."

    Others spent their stolen money on everything from a pair of jet skis for $18,000 to combined receipts of $228 for cigarettes and beer, to over $30,000 on personal items from Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, Coach and Tommy Hilfiger. But the real damage came from the theft of resources for children's future.
No wonder repugicans are trying to do away with public schools. They're no fun!

Your educational tax dollars hard at work - and this is only the beginning.