{"id":3584,"date":"2011-12-14T10:29:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T15:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=3584"},"modified":"2012-01-04T17:25:58","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T22:25:58","slug":"how-academica-became-the-biggest-name-in-florida-charter-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/12\/14\/how-academica-became-the-biggest-name-in-florida-charter-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"How Academica Became The Biggest Name In Florida Charter Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Staff Photo \/ Miami Herald<\/p>

Fernando Zulueta, president of Academica, gets a drink at a Bahamas retreat for several Academica principals.<\/p><\/div>\n

South Florida charter school management firm Academica<\/a> has built a successful network of high-performing charter schools.<\/p>\n

The company has also built a profitable real estate portfolio.<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s the findings from part two of the Miami Herald<\/em>‘s three-part investigation of Florida charter schools.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Academica\u2019s achievements have been profitable. The South Miami company receives more than $9 million a year in management fees just from its South Florida charter schools \u2014 fees that ultimately come from public tax dollars.<\/p>\n

But the Zuluetas\u2019 greatest financial success is largely unseen: Through more than two dozen other companies, the Zuluetas control more than $115 million in South Florida real estate \u2014 all exempt from property taxes as public schools \u2014 and act as landlords for many of Academica\u2019s signature schools, records show.<\/p>\n

These companies collected about $19 million in lease payments last year from charter schools \u2014 with nine schools paying rents exceeding 20 percent of their revenue, records show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Herald<\/em> story also documents the intertwined relationships of charter school board members, who approve school business such as leasing real estate, and the business interests of Academica.<\/p>\n

A companion story<\/a> documents the how the company has built its Tallahassee influence, through more than $200,000 in campaign donations and hiring a lawmaker to work as a lobbyist.<\/p>\n

You can find the full Herald<\/em> series here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Florida charter school management firm Academica has built a successful network of high-performing charter schools. The company has also built a profitable real estate portfolio. That’s the findings from part two of the Miami Herald‘s three-part investigation of Florida charter schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1009,1083,210],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3590,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584\/revisions\/3590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}