The Consumption of Education into the Beast of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

The Consumption of Education into the Beast of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex 

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex can be understood as a conglomerate system of entities whose function is to take-over previously government-run industries. One prominent example of this is Charter schools. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus primarily on public charter schools, which are tuition-free public schools that are open to all students (Mullen and Bartlett, 2022).

There are many factors which distinguish public charter schools from government-run public schools such as: sources of funding, academic performance goals, and exemption from certain laws and regulations (What is a Charter School?, National Charter Resource Center). Unlike public government-run charter schools, which are run by the government, public charter schools are run by chartering organizations or individuals (Mullen and Bartlett, 2022). Furthermore, charter schools tend to limit their acceptance to talented students in poorer cities and overstate their successes. These factors and a myriad of others contribute to the various flaws of public charter schools. I’ll show how we ought to reject the increased presence of public charter schools as they are an insufficient replacement to government public schools and how their increasing prominence and endorsement by politicians across the political spectrum contributes to the Nonprofit Industrial Complex. 

The Appeal of Charter Schools 

Charter schools are appealing to a variety of politicians and are purported to have high success rates for students. Charter schools are supported by politicians like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump (Ujifusa). The broad appeal of charter schools is attributable to claims of high success rates and academic performance of students at such institutions. People who support charter schools also argue that without the red tape of government bureaucracy, educators are allowed more freedom to determine the education for their students (Fusraelli 20). Furthermore, supporters of charter schools will point to the competition that charter schools bring to government-run public schools that are often resistant to change. There is an educational ideal, autonomy in educational programming, a desire to serve a talented student population, and a better teaching and instructional environment, all as reasons to support the creation of charter schools (Fusraelli 20). 

The Limitations of Charter Schools

However, Charter schools suffer from a myriad of deficiencies, such as corruption issues, high failure rates amongst special needs students, and the funneling in of more talented students at the expense of non-academically high achieving students. The approval of charter schools is relatively easy; there are various reports of charter schools copying elements of their mission statement from other charter schools and using funds gratuitously by spending money more for the administrators or charter school owners. Rather than the students themselves with many charter schools now being perceived as cash-cows for investors and hedge-fund managers (Mullen and Bartlett, 2022).

Furthermore, special education programs in some charter schools have lower academic performance success rates than government-run public schools. Special education students are also less likely to be suspended at government-run public schools (Mullen and Bartlett, 2022).

Moreover, Charter schools create more racial segregation in neighborhoods, with a handful of white students being in some charter schools while other charter schools are predominantly students of color. This is also connected to the point that charter schools tend to attract more talented students in whichever district they are occupied in, which result in academically proficient students going to government-run schools are missing out on the resources or educational standards of public charter schools in their area (Mullen and Bartlett, 2022). With all these factors in play, especially the ever-present influence of corporate investors - the business model for charter schools does not translate into a liberal democracy wherein the government serves public social goods like education.

Concluding Thoughts

This brings me to my last point, charter schools are attractive to people who want to contribute to the nonprofit industrial complex that aims to reduce government-run public entities or social goods like education. The nonprofit industrial complex is a way of reducing government-run programs, like education to nonprofit organizations. So, the government used to provide public education for all U.S. citizens, and now it no longer does that, with public charter schools exercising that role.

Often, nonprofit organizations require millions, if not billions, of dollars from investors and donors to function (Ireland 2024). Furthermore, many nonprofit organizations are prone to corruption, such as the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO), which was a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization meant to help tenants in San Francisco and create affordable housing and instead funneled its donations into boosting their executive pay and funneled millions into lobbying (Ireland 2024). The TODCO has not developed a single property in San Francisco in the past twenty years, and they have created no affordable housing units in San Francisco, which is unsurprising given the corruption and poor management that ran the TODCO.

No wonder this organization could not fulfill its mission of assisting the tenants and creating affordable housing in San Francisco. With nonprofit organizations like TODCO and many others that are corrupt and poorly managed, depending on the nonprofit organization that runs a particular publicly-run charter school, it is unsurprising to find mismanagement of funds and failures to fulfill educational promises to students in many charter schools. This is all part of the nonprofit industrial complex that aims to reduce taxes and government spending on public goods and instead spends money on nonprofit organizations to run those goods, resulting in mixed results. In short, public-run charter schools should not replace government-run public schools due to the corruption, mismanagement of funds, poor management, racial segregation, and low academic performance that comes once that occurs.

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