MacDowell Preparatory Academy — Financial Extraction

September 20, 2026

School Overview

Field	Value
Type	Charter school
Location	Detroit, Michigan
Authorizer	Central Michigan University (CMU)
Management	The Purpose Group, LLC
Superintendent	Brian Roderick Banks

MacDowell Preparatory Academy receives public per-pupil funding while Purpose Group LLC — controlled by Banks — extracts the majority of school spending.

Financial Extraction

Metric	Value
Annual revenue	$4.9M
Purpose Group LLC payments	$4,285,201 (72.67%)
Reported staff salaries	$0
Unaccounted management fee gap	$348,489
Math proficiency	3%

How the Numbers Work

Purpose Group receives $4,285,201 of MacDowell’s spending — 72.67% of total revenue. The school reports $0 in staff salaries because staff are technically employed by Purpose Group, not the school itself.

Purpose Group reported paying staff $3,936,712, leaving a $348,489 gap between what MacDowell paid Purpose Group and what Purpose Group reported spending on personnel.

MacDowell revenue:           $4,900,000
Purpose Group payments:      $4,285,201  (72.67%)
Purpose Group staff costs:   $3,936,712
Unaccounted gap:             $348,489
School-reported salaries:            $0

Credential Fraud

Claim	Location
“Juris Doctorate with a Concentration in Criminal Law”	macdowellprep.com

State Bar of Michigan search for “Brian Banks”: zero results.

Verify

School website: macdowellprep.com
CMU charter authorization: cmich.edu
Financial data: mischooldata.org
State Bar: zeekbeek.com/SBM — search “Brian Banks” (zero results)

Independent Reporting

Clutch Justice: MacDowell Preparatory Academy Spends $15,217 a Student. Three Percent Can Do Grade-Level Math. — Comprehensive academic and financial analysis
SchoolDigger: MacDowell Preparatory Academy — Ranked 1,443rd of 1,488 Michigan elementary schools (bottom 3%)
U.S. News: MacDowell Preparatory Academy — 3% math proficiency, 12% reading proficiency

All sources are public records. Full documentation in the git repository.