If you’re considering sending a child to private school, you’ve likely seen some glossy photos and lofty mission statements. But marketing brochures and admissions websites rarely tell you the bad stuff — like a principal with a concerning history, lawsuits filed by families, or financial instability that could shutter a school in the middle of the school year.
Parents have told us they assume authorities conduct safety and quality checks of private schools like they would for public ones. Our reporting shows that is often not the case. Many states take a hands-off approach, essentially leaving it to you to figure out if a school has problems. Advocates for systems that send public money to private schools have said the best accountability check on private schools is that families can leave if they are dissatisfied.
This is why our team at ProPublica — a nonprofit newsroom focused on investigative journalism in the public interest — has spent months digging into the expanding private school landscape. We’ve used data, public records, court cases and countless interviews to investigate hundreds of schools, and we’ve uncovered some with serious issues. These include a school in Arkansas that’s still operating after its founder was accused of running a “makeshift ‘Fight Club,’” and a former superintendent fired for mismanaging charter school money in the Midwest who was able to receive public funds in Florida.
