Kyle Kautzmann, GBA Quoted in Charter School Insider
Aside from the occasional GEICO or Progressive commercial, there isn’t much about insurance people tend to like. Most see insurance as a necessary evil – the purchase of a critical product and service one hopes to never use. Others will gamble on the amount or types of coverage they carry, but failure to carry certain policies can be disastrous for businesses unable to absorb property or personal losses.
As businesses, the stakes are even higher for charter schools. Entrusted with the lives and minds of America’s youth, failure to carry mandated insurance requirements or dropping coverages designed to protect a school against reasonable exposures as a cost-cutting measure not only puts a school in tremendous risk in the event of a damaging lawsuit, it places the educational future of students in peril with the prospect of a school closure.
Economic factors appear to have played a role in some schools defaulting on their insurance premium payments, prompting carriers to cancel coverage. For charter schools, ongoing economic woes can compound an existence already made difficult due to lack of funding and annual budgetary shortages and concerns.
“Charter schools are on a tight budget, and insurance expense is a line item that can be taxing on the school,” notes John Pagliaro, vice president of property and casualty for Summit Consolidated Group, which offers comprehensive commercial property and casualty insurance plans, including those for charter schools.