The Turnaround Runaround
This week I published a cover story investigation in Washington City Paper that I have been working on for many months. I’m quite excited to have it finally out, and it looks at the wholly unscrutinized world of charter school consulting. This one particular company—TenSquare—has raked in millions of dollars in taxpayer funds since 2012 for “school improvement” services. Think political consulting, but paid for out of public school budgets.
It’s a fairly crazy story, but one major part was learning how scared people are around DC to talk honestly and openly about this company. TenSquare is a very politically connected firm, and the city’s sole charter school authorizer (“authorizer” is basically charter school jargon for regulator) is a big TenSquare booster. Many school leaders told me how pressured they felt to hire this high-priced company, lest they’d face consequences.
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