Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganThe PACE of Embezzlement by Michigans’ For-Profit Charter Schools is the True Measure of “Success”
Wednesday , 23, January 2019 Section 16 3 Comments
Nancy Paris, founder of The Paris Academy based out of Saginaw was charged with embezzlement of $100,000 or more on Tuesday, January 22, 2019, when a May 2018, audit revealed her student count of 715 included 153 fake enrollees. The total amount of taxpayers’ money Paris is charged with embezzling is $800,000.
Paris opened her cyber for-profit charter school on June 21, 2016. With offices in Saginaw and Grand Rapids. she offered over 250 courses and dual enrollment for students attending her cyber “school”. One month later she registered her management company, Paris Academies of Compelling Education Inc., with the state of Delaware. Why would a Michigan for-profit charter school management company do this? Delaware is very pro-business, has business law that will handle your criminal corporate entity with kid gloves, and anyone who tries to sue your business will be told by the judge where you can shove your lawsuit while they kiss the CEO’s ass as an apology for not throwing the case out sooner. That’s Why.
PACE stats: PACE reports enrollment growth of over 700% in one year! Available statewide in Michigan!
— PACE-Paris Academy (@TheParisAcademy) September 15, 2015
700% in one year? Too good to be true! How does a school do that? Public Schools have to provide quality education and education services to increase enrollment. For-profit charter school CEOs do this.
It almost seems as if Nancy Paris knew at some point people would catch on that her charter school for homeschoolers was an excuse to grab Michigan taxpayer money and live the good life. Which she allegedly did.
The Paris Academy obviously is no more. The Genesee School District which authorized the charter school chose to dissolve the contract at the end of June of 2018. With the offices shuttered and the homeschooled students attending classes some other way, The Paris Academy can actually do some good for the education of Michigan by being another example of why for-profit charter schools are bad for the state and need to be eliminated. Perhaps it’s time to stop calling them for-profit charter schools and instead call them for-pilfer charter schools? It’s time to be honest about the real appeal of opening a charter school business because educating children is not it.
Bianca F. says: The charges against Nancy Paris were thrown out by the judge at conclusion of the pretrial because there was no probable cause, no evidence whatsoever, to send her to trial. The article above is full of misinformation, disinformation, and defamation.
Stacy Hutter says: It was an amazing schooling opportunity for gifted students. Our child will graduate from college 2 years early with nearly no debt. Great concept, unscrupulous ceo. I feel so bad for the families that were left hanging by Nancy. The current public school system doesn’t adequately serve highly advanced students..and they’re not interested in doing anything about it!
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Up North Progressive says:
That’s not the case at all. Public Schools are cash strapped because of people like Nancy Paris siphoning public tax dollars away from real public schools for her for-profit charter school, then embezzling that public tax money for personal gain. All that money Nancy Paris stole from Michigan’s taxpayers could have gone to the real public school district and helped fund programs for gifted and talented students. There is plenty of interest in providing those resources and programs, there is just not enough funding.
Nancy Paris isn’t the only one to use the for-profit charter school model to grift taxpayer money. Steve Ingersoll is currently serving time in federal prison for embezzlement and felony federal fraud.