A
for-profit education firm is soaking taxpayers by subleasing buildings to the Brooklyn public charter schools it runs at astronomical
rates — including one at an incredible 1,000 percent markup, sources said.
While the
city Department of Education leases buildings in Brooklyn
for between $5 and $25 per square foot, the Michigan-based National Heritage
Academies subleases to the charter schools it operates for roughly $38 to $45
per square foot, according to a review of public school leases by The Post.
For
example, NHA is leasing a former school building on Parkville Avenue in Kensington from the
Brooklyn Diocese for approximately $264,000 per year, according to a church
source.
Yet the
firm billed the site, the Brooklyn Dreams Charter School, $2.76 million for
rent and related charges there last year — a 1,000 percent markup, financial
filings show...
The firm is
one of the few for-profits in New
York that manages all educational aspects of its
charter schools, after being grandfathered in when state law abolished the
practice in 2010.
