The New York Charter School Association fought state audits in the courts and won. They said they were perfectly capable of auditing themselves. Some people assumed that where public money goes, public scrutiny follows. The law was changed to permit audits and State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has been patiently auditing the charter schools.
Here are his latest reports.
COMPTROLLER DiNAPOLI RELEASES SCHOOL AUDITS
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced his office completed audits of the Brighter Choice Charter Middle School for Boys,Brighter Choice Charter Middle School for Girls, Frewsburg Central School District, Holley Central School District and the Homer Central School District.
“In an era of limited resources and increased accountability, it’s critical that schools make every dollar count,” DiNapoli said. “By auditing school district and charter school finances and operations, my office continues to provide taxpayers the assurance that their money is being spent appropriately and effectively.”
Brighter Choice Charter Middle School for Boys – Financial Operations (Albany County)
School officials do not have a means to determine whether the school received the services outlined in its contract with the Brighter Choice Foundation. In addition, the fee structure, based on a percentage of per pupil revenue, does not appear to be reasonable, as the services being provided do not have any bearing on the number of students at the school or the state Education Department’s charter school tuition rate.
Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls – Financial Operations (Albany County)
School officials do not have a means to determine whether the school received the services outlined in its contract with the Brighter Choice Foundation. In addition, auditors found that the school did not budget properly. For both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 fiscal years, the school’s total expenses were underestimated. This resulted in a smaller net income than anticipated in the 2011-12 fiscal year and a loss in the 2012-13 fiscal year for which a net income had been planned.
Frewsburg Central School District – Internal Controls Over Selected Financial Activities (Chautauqua County)
District officials did not adopt policies governing the establishment and use of reserve funds and could not demonstrate the reasonableness of reserve balances. As a result, two of the district’s reserve funds had balances that totaled $3.1 million more than needed for authorized purposes, and three of the district’s reserve funds had balances that were not supported.
Holley Central School District – Financial Condition (Orleans County)
For the last five fiscal years, district officials underestimated revenues by a total of $7.2 million and overestimated expenditures by a total of $4.4 million. These budgeting practices caused unexpended surplus funds to significantly exceed the statutory limit each year.
Homer Central School District – Financial Condition (Cayuga County)
Over the last five years, the district appropriated nearly $3.6 million of unexpended surplus funds and budgeted for expenditures from its reserves in its budgets. Although unexpended surplus and reserve funds were included in the budgets as financing sources, the district did not actually use the surplus funds because expenditures were significantly less than what had been estimated.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ok, I need some expertise. I went to the gym for my class with senior citizens. I brought some of the flyers for the movie, “Standardization…” premiering here at ASU, Tempe this Saturday. I had a discussion before class with a woman who was an accountant. I told her I was disappointed in our Superintendent of Schools touting private schools over public schools. She said to me that it gives kids more choice; and, if the money follows the kids, it has no effect on the public schools. Class was beginning, so I didn’t have time to debate. What is a simple, professional way to let her and others like her know that they are incorrect? Is there a good article I can give her or a really good answer? Thanks for any assistance.
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Diane’s recent book.
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Dottie, There are so many things wrong with charters that there is no quick retort, IMHO.
You could click on the link Charter Schools directly above your post (beside “Categories”) to see what Diane has written here about them, such as this: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/08/28/la-times-charter-schools-should-not-hurt-public-schools/
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Dottie: I agree with Cosmic Tinker, but let me add what I hope is a small helpful hint.
One of the ways that the charterites/privatizers mislead and obfuscate is through using words in ways that are often defined quite differently by others. So strictly speaking, sometimes they are not lying or misstating, and when pushed can claim that you or someone else misunderstood or—worse yet—deliberately distorted what they originally meant. Agreed, it takes more than a moment or two but that’s what you will need to start to dampen their self-imposed Rheeality Distortion Fields.
For example, you wrote that she said that “the money follows the kids.” In a recent discussion on this blog, Jack reminded me of what is called the “midyear dump.”
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/15/reader-offers-a-dose-of-common-sense-about-high-test-scores/
Please click on the above link for full context, but what happens is that as soon as the deadline passes for receiving the full-year funding for students in some charters, they are then dumped on the local public schools. So the charters rid themselves of the test suppressors, worst behavioral problems, hardest to educate, etc., but get all the funding for that school year while the public schools who get those students have to take them in without getting any more resources for the year. So for the school year, the charters collect more than their “fair” share of public monies.
So yes, it is true that “the money follows the kids” at the beginning—but it doesn’t keep following them, in proportional weekly or monthly amounts, throughout the school year. If you game the system, you can tolerate the problematic students until the moment they are “worth nothing” then you do the “midyear dump” on the public schools.
So you might reply that “Yes, the money follows the kids until the moment it doesn’t” or “Yes, the money follows the kids into the charter schools and stays there even when the kids are dumped into the public schools.”
And here’s a simple question you could follow up with: wouldn’t it just be fair, the right thing to do, to let “the money follow the kids” so that charters cannot game a deadline in order to get more than they are entitled to?
Of course, that’s when charterites/privatizers get all huffy and offended and start complaining that you are engaging in ad hominem attacks and are against choice and don’t want poor parents to have the same choices as rich parents and that you believe in “poverty is destiny” and that you have the “bigotry of low expectations.”
It’s all smoke and mirrors. I am sure you will figure out how to make your case even when they try to use verbal slight-of-hand.
😎
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Great job, KTA!
You know, perhaps we should all work on talking points.
Simple statements that are easily verified in response to the most common deformer claims.
As Dottie pointed out, we often hear the deformer memes parroted by the merely uninformed/ uninvolved as opposed to the malicious. Some good clear responses would be handy, yes?
So you well informed, good, succinct , clear and quippy writers …what do you say ( I’m looking at you: Robert, Linda, KTA, Dienne, Michael, democracy, Duane and a bunch of others I am too tired to recall right now)
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Ang: aw shucks, but to be honest…
You should add yourself to the list.
😄
If each of us contributes just one every once in a great while, that could add up. For example, Chiara Duggan’s “choice not voice” to describe the charterite/privatizer program was—IMHO—an instant classic. As was Linda’s “edufraud.” And so too Robert D. Shepherd’s description of the CCSS as a bullet list.
Or as the “Godfather of Quality” aka Quixotic Quester himself might put it—
TAGO!
😎
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Krazy TA wrote:
“Please click on the above link for full context, but what happens is that as soon as the deadline passes for receiving the full-year funding for students in some charters, they are then dumped on the local public schools. So the charters rid themselves of the test suppressors, worst behavioral problems, hardest to educate, etc., but get all the funding for that school year while the public schools who get those students have to take them in without getting any more resources for the year. So for the school year, the charters collect more than their “fair” share of public monies.”
I’ve noted this as well. Currently experiencing that here in Michigan. But it’s even better for charters here since they get an immediate advantage. Count Day has passed and our high school enrolled 17 new students. Counselors said their transcripts are ALL from charter schools. State testing is in two weeks for the freshmen and juniors.
Charters get the money and we get their test scores. I have two of the students in my classes. They’re nice kids but academically behind.
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Steve K: I hope all the charterites/privatizers and their edubully enablers and accountabully bean counters notice that you are explainin’ not complainin’. [But forewarned is forearmed: watch out for the “that’s just anecdotal nyah nyah nay!”]
My gut reaction to your comments: heavens to betsy! A teacher! I worked with so many, and for the vast majority it truly was “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
As for the charters: wow! They get the big $tudent $ucce$$, you get their lower test scores, they get the nice write-ups in the local newspapers, you’ll get the blame for working hard for the throw-aways dumped by the charters in your classroom.
I wish the best for you and ALL your students.
Krazy props.
😎
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Wow… charters with questionable accounting practices… I’m shocked!!! I thought they were in business to save children, especially those in urban areas who have been abused by public school educators!! What a bunch of crooks.
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Tom DiNapoli for NYS Governor!
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100%
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Thanks for the advice. I will see her again on Thursday, so I’ll be ready. I also know when it doesn’t do any good to continue trying to educate someone. The problem I see here in AZ is that too many people don’t understand what is truly going on.
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I know this is way off topic but I just wanted to alert readers to an editorial in today’s NYT.
Excerpts shown below.
>The new Common Core learning standards, which set ambitious goals for what students should learn from one year to the next, are desperately needed in New York, where only about a third of high school students graduate with the math and English skills necessary to succeed at college. But the standards, adopted in 2010, have had a bumpy rollout and are under siege from several constituencies.
To keep the momentum going, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Board of Regents, which oversees education in the state, need to resist any effort to roll back the reform. They have to continue to address legitimate criticisms of the way the standards are being put into effect — while also countering the rants of union leaders and other critics who are deliberately misleading the public.
The rollout of the Common Core standards, which will give students in all districts a better chance at a good education, has not been perfect. But missteps aside, the state cannot afford to let this project founder. <
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And here’s more from todays NYT editorial
>The State Education Department deserves credit for the inventiveness it showed in creating the new tests and the curriculum materials that support the learning standards. In fact, those materials (instructional videos, teacher training kits and more) are widely used by educators in many other states.
New York, however, has failed to explain to parents and communities the aims of the Common Core and that much more would be expected of students, teachers and schools than in the past. To add to the confusion, the state’s 700 districts vary widely in how well they have changed to a new curriculum and trained teachers to execute it. This has created a great deal of anxiety in the teacher corps, not least because the teacher evaluation system required by state law takes student test scores into account.
The current situation is made worse by infighting within the state teachers union, which has hardened its anti-Common Core position. The union complains that teachers will be unfairly judged if the new tests are included in their evaluations. But 80 percent of public school teachers will be evaluated entirely based on locally determined measures. Moreover, in last year’s evaluations, which were based partly on the new test scores, only 1 percent of teachers were rated ineffective.
And despite widespread misconceptions, the regents again explained that the new standards do not require school districts to increase the number of tests. (The scheduled time for the federally required tests in grades three through eight, the Common Core report said, accounted for less than 1 percent of instructional time.)
However, local districts themselves have increased testing to comply with a provision of state law created at the request of the unions. The law requires that tests measuring growth in student learning make up 40 percent of an individual teacher’s rating — but half of that must be derived from local measures agreed upon in collective bargaining. To comply, districts have piled on tests, many of which serve only to eat up valuable instructional time. The regents have rightly instructed the districts to cut back on these exams.<
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This appeared on February 14, not today, according to my search engine.
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My mistake. Thanks for correcting.
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Can someone explain to me why the charter schools that brought this case were different then those that were audited by the Comptroller? The newspaper articles simply state that the plaintiff schools were not state entities. The schools that were audited were not either – but they received state funds. I’d like to read the court’s decision but haven’t tracked it down yet.
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Sam,
The Néw York City Charter School Association fought state audits a few years ago (2009 or 2010) and won. The court said they could not be audited. Then the state legislature rewrote the law to say the State Comptroller had the power to audit charters. Eva went to court to overturn the law, and she won. I have not seen the decision, but the quotes in the paper said that “technically,” charters are “not a unit of the state” and thus not subject to public audit. I read that to mean that they are NOT public schools which are always subject to public audit.
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