Some Utah charter schools hire for-profit management

When Mountainville Academy found a $300,000 hole in its budget last year, administrators called Lincoln Fillmore. When C.S. Lewis Academy had questions about complicated state reports, administrators called Lincoln Fillmore. And when Gateway Preparatory Academy needed a short term loan, administrators called Lincoln Fillmore.

Ten years ago, when the charter school movement in Utah was just gaining steam, the schools, run mostly by parent volunteers, would have been on their own. But now, charter schools can choose from nearly a dozen companies, like Fillmore's Charter Solutions, to purchase help with accounting, human resources and other business concerns.

"He's really helped us out," said Kelly Carter, assistant director at C.S. Lewis Academy, a public charter school located in Santaquin. "I mean, the school's founders — we're all moms, we don't know a thing about business management."

For the most part, charter schools that sign on with such management companies experiences fewer bumps as they navigate the tricky business of state rules, regulations and reports. In some areas of the country, however, power-hungry management companies are doing more than offering advice. In Ohio, for example, White Hat Management is in the process of firing board members at 10 different charter schools, ostensibly preventing the board from ever firing the management company. The chief executive director of Imagine Schools similarly encouraged his subordinates to secure letters of resignation from board members who didn't support the management company. In New York, abuses have been so pervasive that the legislature recently passed a law prohibiting new charter schools from hiring for-profit management companies.

Though the market for these types of management companies is smaller in Utah, the business of offering support services to charter schools is becoming increasingly intertwined with charter school politics. As a result, some community members worry that money is quickly replacing children's best interests as the primary motive for the movement.

Tension over the issue peaked this summer when the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools reworked its management. Four of the board's seven members now have strong ties to Parents for Choice in Education, an advocacy organization that is notorious for its support of privatization. Two board members, including Fillmore, operate charter school management companies.

"I don't have anything against charter schools," said Claire Geddes, a long-time government watchdog, "but this is starting to look like a back-door way to use public money for private education."