Why Hedge Funds Love Charter Schools (2024)

Why Hedge Funds Love Charter Schools (1)

In April I posted, The Dishonorable Andrew Cuomo Meets the Hedge Fund / Charter School Zombies. In an online comment, Huffington Super User William Occam challenged me to provide "evidence that any of the individuals you have publicly shamed in this essay stand to financially gain from their support." I responded at the time but feel he merits a more detailed answer and I would like to take another shot at the hedge fund / charter school zombies. I also recommend a YouTube satire, the Education News/Comedy Show, by my colleague Mark Naison of Fordham University.

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Obscure laws can have a very big impact on social policy, including obscure changes in the United States federal tax code. The 2001 Consolidated Appropriations Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, included provisions from the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000. The law provided tax incentives for seven years to businesses that locate and hire residents in economically depressed urban and rural areas. The tax credits were reauthorized for 2008-2009, 2010-2011, and 2012-2013.

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As a result of this change to the tax code, banks and equity funds that invest in charter schools in underserved areas can take advantage of a very generous tax credit. They are permitted to combine this tax credit with other tax breaks while they also collect interest on any money they lend out. According to one analyst, the credit allows them to double the money they invested in seven years. Another interesting side note is that foreign investors who put a minimum of $500,000 in charter school companies are eligible to purchase immigration visas for themselves and family members under a federal program called EB-5.

The tax credit may also explain why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg partnered with the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey to promote charter schools, donated a half a million dollars worth of stock to organizations that distribute charter school funding, and opened his own foundation, Startup: Education, to build new charter schools.

The real estate industry, which already receives huge tax breaks as it gentrifies communities, also stands to benefit by promoting charter schools and helping them buy up property, or rent, in inner city communities. One real estate company, Eminent Properties Trust, boasts on its website "Our investment portfolio of nearly $3 billion includes megaplex movie theatres and adjacent retail, public charter schools, and other destination recreational and specialty investments. This portfolio includes over 160 locations spread across 34 states with over 200 tenants."

The Charter management group Charter Schools USA recommends that rental costs should not exceed 20 percent of a school's budget. However the Miami Herald reported that in 2011 nineteen charter schools in Miami-Dade and Broward exceeded this figure and one in Miami Gardens paid forty-three percent. The Herald called south Florida charter schools a "$400-million-a-year powerhouse backed by real-estate developers and promoted by politicians, but with little oversight." Its report found charters paying exorbitant fees to management companies and that many of the highest rents were paid to landlords with ties to the management companies running the schools.

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Tax benefits and real estate investment may also explain why Wall Street is so hot on raising money for charter schools. On Monday night, April 28, 2014, hundreds of Wall Streeters gathered at Cipriani in Midtown Manhattan to raise funds for Success Academy Charter Schools. Former Florida Governor and GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush gave the keynote address. The dinner was chaired by hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb. Loeb is the founder of Third Point LLC and chairman of the board for Success Academy. The gala raised at least $7.75 million for Success Academy. Also attending were Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management, Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Asset Management, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital, John Paulson of Paulson & Co. and Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater USA.

According to The New York Times, the ten highest paid hedge fund operators with close ties to charter schools also includes David Tepper (number 1 at $3.5 billion in 2013), founder of founder of Appaloosa Management and New Jersey based "Better Education for Kids"; Steven A. Cohen (number 2 at $2.4 billion) of SAC Capital Advisors, which was forced to pay a $1.2 billion dollar penalty for insider trading, who has given over $10 million to the Achievement First charter school network; and Paul Tudor Jones II (tied for tenth at $600 million), founder of the Tudor Investment Corporation who has supported charter schools through his Robin Hood Foundation.

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Why Hedge Funds Love Charter Schools (2024)

FAQs

Why do hedge funds love charter schools? ›

As a result of this change to the tax code, banks and equity funds that invest in charter schools in underserved areas can take advantage of a very generous tax credit. They are permitted to combine this tax credit with other tax breaks while they also collect interest on any money they lend out.

Why am I interested in working in a charter school? ›

Charter schools typically have a lower student to teacher ratio, which makes it one of the top five reasons to work at a charter school. This means that you can give each student more individualized attention. It also reduces your workload and stress level when there are fewer students in your classroom.

Why do people oppose charter schools? ›

The most common arguments about charter schools are that: Charters steal kids and money from traditional public ISDs. Charters are selective and operate like private schools. Public charter schools don't enroll students from historically underserved families.

What will be different about how the charter school is funded? ›

A charter school will receive funds directly or via its authorizer depending upon whether it has elected to be direct or locally funded as indicated in its most recent Certification of Information.

Does Bill Gates support charter schools? ›

LOS ANGELES -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a $5.7 million grant to Aspire Public Schools to create six new small charter schools in Los Angeles and strengthen the charter school organization that runs them.

Why hedge funds are so powerful? ›

Their market-neutral, or balanced, approach to investing helps seek out positive returns by investing in varied instruments over long- and short-term periods. This positions hedge funds as nimble investors in the marketplace, able to anticipate – and avoid – undue risk for their investment partners.

What are the disadvantages of working at a charter school? ›

Teaching at a charter school can be very rewarding, but it's important to consider all of the pros and cons before signing a contract. While variety, flexibility and smaller class sizes may sound appealing, they often come with lower pay and longer hours.

Why do teachers leave charter schools? ›

3 In response, teachers in both sectors pointed to a lack of administrative support, poor work- ing conditions, and low salaries. But compared to tra- ditional public school teachers, charter school teachers were more likely to say that they left because of a lack of job security and the expansive nature of their work.

Why do teachers unions oppose charter schools? ›

Teachers unions, for their part, have been warning for decades that some charter schools are profit-seeking and fail to serve their students. Teachers unions are also wary of the prospect that students will enroll in non-union charter schools instead of unionized public schools.

What is a weakness of a charter school? ›

Let us look at some disadvantages of choosing a charter school over a public school: Charter schools are not as diverse as public schools. Since charter schools are schools of choice, parents must seek out alternative educational options, this tends to make charter schools less diverse than neighboring schools.

What are the negative effects of charter schools? ›

Charter schools are less transparent than public schools and often take advantage of looser regulations when it comes to accountability. The public is unable to effectively monitor the performance of charter schools in their community because charter school boards can meet as infrequently as they like.

Why do charter schools get a bad reputation? ›

Because charter schools are interested in maximizing their profit margins, they frequently weed out students who are more expensive to teach. This includes slower learners, children with special needs, children in rural communities and children from poor or unstable families.

What does it mean when a charter school is directly funded? ›

Direct Funded.

Directly funded schools receive funding directly from the state. Districts sometimes refer to these schools as independent charter schools. Method Schools is a direct-funded network of charter schools.

How do charter schools in the USA make money? ›

Charter schools are public schools. Like district public schools, they are funded according to enrollment (also called average daily attendance, or ADA), and receive funding from the district and the state according to the number of students attending.

Who funds charter schools in the US? ›

Charter schools in the United States are primary or secondary education institutions which receive government funding but operate with a degree of autonomy or independence from local public school districts.

Which schools do hedge funds recruit from? ›

Some of the most common colleges that hedge funds hire from include Ivy League schools such as Harvard , Yale , and Princeton , as well as other top - ranked universities like Stanford , MIT , and Columbia .

Why are hedge fund owners so rich? ›

Hedge funds seem to rake in billions of dollars a year for their professional investment acumen and portfolio management across a range of strategies. Hedge funds make money as part of a fee structure paid by fund investors based on assets under management (AUM).

What are the arguments for hedge funds? ›

Funds of hedge funds offer a broader group of investors the opportunity to access the potential benefits of hedge funds, including:
  • Uncorrelated returns.
  • Protection of capital in volatile markets – avoiding losses.
  • Reduced portfolio volatility.
  • Increased consistency of positive returns.
Jan 8, 2024

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