FL failed charter school spent $366,000 on teachers, $824,000 on principal. Shameful.

[madfloridian]

Priorities way out of order. This kind of thing is happening all over the country, not just Florida. CEOs getting richer, teachers used as scapegoats....and public schools doing without as their funds go to charters.

From the Bradenton Herald:

Florida's shameful situation on charter schools

A failing charter school was closed, and the principal got a huge payoff in spite of that failure.

The principal in question not only received a $519,000 severance check, but she took home her $305,000 annual salary for a grand total of $824,000 during the 2010-2011 school year. The Orlando Sentinel also reported last week the school only spent $366,000 on teacher salaries and instruction during that school year. Nothing can justify that imbalance, especially for the leader of a charter that failed.

Public school district superintendents don't even make that kind of unconcionalble salary. School boards would face public rage for even proposing such pay.

.."Last week the Miami Herald reported that Charter Schools USA handed out in excess of $205,000 in contributions to political organizations and candidates for this election, three times the amount the Fort Lauderdale-based company spent two years ago.

That money must come from the profits the company earns at taxpayer expense; in effect, the public is paying that political price so charter schools can leverage even greater profits from the Legislature.

Here is more about that school's closing:

$500,000 payment to failed charter school principal sparks outrage

A Florida state senator is calling for an investigation into the payout of more than $500,000 to the principal of a failed Orange County charter school.

A school board chairman blasted the payout of taxpayer money, which has sparked outrage in Orlando, as “immoral and unethical.”

Kelly Young, principal of NorthStar High School in Orlando, received a check for $519,453.96 in June, about the same time the Orange County School Board accepted the school’s plan to close in lieu of being forced to shut down based on declining student achievement, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

The Sentinel also reported that Young was “still being paid thousands of dollars a month” at the time to complete the school’s affairs. The school serves about 180 students in east Orange County.

We need to remember that the charter school movement has the blessings of both parties now.

It's like a steamroller mowing down public education.