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#AnotherDayAnotherCharterScandal
Charter School Debt Remains Mostly Unpaid
The LAUSD Charter School Division releases data showing that the $13,745,310 due for overallocation fees is still being largely ignored.
“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…
