The National Education Policy Center just published a research brief, The Business of Charter Schooling: Understanding the Policies that Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit. The word “brief” is probably misleading, since this detailed, informative work is 56 pages long. The two college education profs who wrote it, Bruce Baker of Rutgers University and Gary Miron of Western Michigan University, have created an important resource for anyone who wants to learn the intricacies of charter schools funding and the underreported ways they spend their money.
The brief isn’t about the educational quality of charters, which, like district schools, varies from excellent to poor. It’s about the lack of transparency in the use of government funds whose purpose is to set up and run the schools and the potential for people and organizations to abuse the system for personal gain.
As the authors explain, the way charters use state funding isn’t accounted for in sufficient detail. In Arizona, the financial reports submitted to the state are general to the point of being close to useless, unlike school districts which have to account for their expenditures in detail, and the same is true in most other states. Lots of charter schools use Educational Management Organizations (EMOs) extensively, sending them as much as 90 percent of the money they get from the state. Sometimes the EMOs run nearly every aspect of the schools, but we don’t know how they spend the money because they don’t have any responsibility to publicly account for their finances. Charter boards often have a too-close-for-comfort relationship with the EMOs and with companies that sell supplies and services to the schools, making for inevitable conflicts of interest. And the way charter buildings are purchased or leased can mean some people or corporations siphon off a whole lot of money to pay for the buildings which is supposed to be used for the students’ educations.
The brief lists eight recommendations to improve the situation. which mainly come down to increasing financial transparency and accountability of charters. Large purchases as well as contracts with EMOs should be carefully reviewed, financial reporting to the state should be more detailed and precise, the board members and staff should be at arms length from the EMOs and contractors to minimize the possibilities of misappropriation of funds, etc.
Over the years, I’ve written a lot about charter school operators, EMOs and property management corporations that have misused state funds, often illegally, though in some cases the misuse of funds is perfectly legal, which is part of the problem. There are plenty of well documented horror stories out there, meaning there’s a whole lot more waiting to be uncovered. Charter school supporters as well as skeptics should work to put in safeguards against the bad guys who go into the education business for the wrong reasons.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2015.
A Call for Accountability From Tucson Weekly “Education” Reporter!
With all due respect, Mr. Safier’s articles on “Education” are tendentious, political motivated, designed to support the political status quo in TUSD, and NOT in the best interests in affording the Students in TUSD a first rate Education.
So, Saitama doesn’t believe taxpayers should know where money is spent? It’s o.k. to have corporations & foundations profiting from our money?And, in many cases those same corporations are foreigners who fund campaigns for Congress & State government positions. That’s o.k.?
So, Casquivano-Nichols: Ignores the failure of Local Control of Public Education, Corruption, and the use of Local Schools Districts for Political Purposes/Gain; that Private Schools/Charter Schools exist because of the dismal failure of School Districts (generally), under Local Political Control, to provide a quality Education to the Children in these Districts.
Hey Francis, don’t judge all school districts by TUSD. No other school district in this area (or the state) have the political problems of TUSD. I certainly want to know where my tax dollars are going, and I’m not very happy that our state legislators who have financial interests in charter schools or private school vouchers, make laws that benefit themselves. I’m also concerned about the inadequate education many children in charters receive. It has been my experience that when those students return to public schools, they are almost always behind academically, especially in reading. Libertarians and Republicans believed that the free market would improve public schools. Instead, it has siphoned dollars meant for public schools into a hinterland of corporate profit, and left public schools scrambling to provide resources with scant dollars. Here’s an example of what Dave’s talking about. If Basis is a public school, how do they afford to advertise on AZPM every single day? My school could barely afford paper. Fifteen years of corporate education policy has yielded minimal success, except for the corporate pocketbook.
PPEP TEC schools need to be investigated.
In Diane Douglass’s “Listening Tour” I made three requests: Increased School Funding; Less High Stakes Testing; and Charter School Accountability. How we can give taxpayer monies to privately owned, for profit charter schools (Basis, Great Hearts, etc) and not insist on accountability totally escapes me. David is right on in this article – we need accountability for tax payer dollars.
BTW: TUSD is not the only school district in the State so relating everything to TUSD is myopic at best.
No but TUSD is the worst. Anything that takes our focus away from them allows them to become even worse. Fix them first.
Old Pueblo Veteran, I’ve had a few of your comments removed recently, the only ones by any commenter which have been removed for awhile. I created a policy that comments need to be related to my posts in some substantial manner. You may have missed my statement about that when I made it. If so, I’m repeating it here. Your comments that were removed have been too far off topic.