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Guita Sharifi has a message for Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Come and visit one of our charter schools.”
Sharifi, the CFO of charter school management company Lifelong Learning Administration, won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business Journal almost a year ago.
She would like Newsom to “tell us why he doesn’t really support more funding” for charter schools.
She notes that California has a moratorium on opening one category of new charter schools until the beginning of next year.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but some have gained a reputation as being elitist, while causing considerable controversy. Sharifi said President Donald Trump’s administration is “very school-choice” but the state of California isn’t.
“Education and school choice should be every legislator’s top issue,” she told the Business Journal on March 28.
There is a “lot of commotion as far as government regulations” are concerned.
In California, for example, that includes more meetings and paperwork.
Diversifying in States
Lifelong Learning, a public charter school network, is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The nonprofit manages about 120 schools across the U.S., with 90 of them in California. Its only private school in California is the online Houston Academy.
Sharifi says she works in Irvine and manages about $550 million. Some 40 finance team members are also based here, with many of them working remotely.
“We’re trying to diversify in different states,” she said.
Most of her organization’s branded schools are called Learn4Life.
“Other states have other types of regulations versus California.”
She says the company’s program is popular with parents and students.
“We also introduced a private model versus a public school model. We expanded our reach.”
“We just opened our first private school in Florida, in Boca Raton.”
She added: “We’re looking to also open one in Orange County.”
The organization is now running schools in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, Texas and California.
She notes that some states are providing families with vouchers for education at either public or private schools.
“We could possibly expand into the private model so we can accept those vouchers,” she said.
Millions in School Savings
“While our partners are improving educational outcomes, we work behind the scenes and save them thousands of hours and millions of dollars,” Lifelong Learning says on its website.
Sharifi fled from Iran shortly before the 1979 revolution, eventually receiving a doctorate in Chicago.
She previously held various professional positions, including chief financial officer at the Alzheimer’s Family Services Center in Huntington Beach, director of finance-national at Saratech in Lake Forest and CFO at Western Youth Services in Laguna Hills.
Sharifi joined Lifelong Learning Administration in October 2019 after serving in the healthcare field, including the CFO spot at Radiant Health Centers in Irvine.
Sharifi won the nonprofit award at the Business Journal’s 12th annual CFO of the Year event in 2019.