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Charter Schools Getting Boost from EB-5 Funds

EB-5 watchdog David North has an interesting report on the use of EB-5 visa investments to help launch charter schools in several other states. North finds the investor reports “grim.” He also expresses dismay at the funneling of money to EB-5 regional centers (i.e., the immigration lawyers and other middlemen working the foreign crowd for investments) that could have been invested directly in American students:

The big picture is that dollars spent on profits and fees to the regional centers handling the 61 investments is money that would be spent on kids and teachers were they all in the public school system. We will never know how much was siphoned off in this way in these 11 schools because of the financial reporting, but it is safe to say that many millions are involved. Similarly, taxpayers, instead of knowing that all their tax dollars are going to the schools, must accept that some of these dollars are heading into private hands instead [David North, “The Strange Marriage of Two Programs: EB-5 and Charter Schools,” Center for Immigration Studies, December 2016].

Darn! The South Dakota Republicans looking to privatize and profitize K-12 education could have used EB-5 money to set up some charter schools, but alas! the USCIS has found South Dakota too corrupt to trust with EB-5.

3 Comments

  1. Porter Lansing 2016-12-12 09:41

    Too corrupt for EB-5 but not for IM22? curiouser and curiouser

  2. Mark Winegar 2016-12-13 05:49

    SD government is too corrupt to participate in EB-5 but not too corrupt to syphon off tax dollars to private schools which is why we need IM22.

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-12-14 07:14

    Mark, we need to connect a few dots from implementation of IM22 to stopping self-interested legislators from passing legislation to undermine public education. IM22 wouldn’t have stopped Phyllis Heineman’s stealth vouchers. It would create a somewhat more level playing field that would allow us to vote the bums out and elect defenders of public education. It might also give us an opportunity to have the state ethics commission review Phyllis’s husband’s financial stake in seeking the tax breaks for funding religious education through his insurance company.

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