In a stunning decision, a judge in Manhattan ruled that the State Comptroller may not audit Eva Moskowitz’s charter schools or any other charter schools because they are “not units of the state.” In other words, they are not public schools. If they were public schools, they would be “units of the state” and could be audited by the State Comptroller. As private contractors, they audit themselves.
Charter schools have claimed in federal courts that they are not public schools and may not be held to the same laws governing public schools. In every case, the courts and the National Labor Relations Board have agreed with the charter operators that charter schools are private corporations with a contract receiving public funds from the government. When charter founders in Los Angeles were convicted of misappropriating public funds, the California Charter Schools Association defended them by arguing that charter schools are not public schools but private corporations. In other words, in their words, they are private schools, not public schools, so they are not subject to public audit.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Then they should not receive public funds. Isn’t there a law that public funds need oversight? I still cannot get my head around all of this.
Awesome. They receive taxpayer dollars and taxpayers have no ability to know how those dollars are spent. What a racket.
“What a racket.”
Nowhere near the Military-Industrial Complex racket but a racket none the less. It’s the spawn of the MIC.
We do need private services in the government. Charters are now considered a purchased commodity. Once authorized we are buying their services. That is what this decision says. Our decision is whether to purchase their services or not, not to audit them according to this
No, our decision is whether private organizations should receive public funding but not be required to follow public rules and regulations.
M,
The government sends money to Boeing to purchase its goods but Boeing is still private. This ruling says that charters are private schools that have a government contract.
But then how do they have a right to use public space rent-free? Or at all, really?
I’m no lawyer, but I think this ruling appears to be inconsistent with NY state charter school law, under Education § 2854. General requirements. 1., which says,
“(c) A charter school shall be subject to the financial audits, the audit procedures, and the audit requirements set forth in the charter and shall be subject to audits of the comptroller of the state of New York at his or her discretion. Such procedures and standards shall be consistent with generally accepted accounting and audit standards. Independent fiscal audits shall be required at least once annually.”
Anyone know if it will be appealed?
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$$EDN2854$$%40TXEDN02854+&LIST=LAW+&BROWSER=EXPLORER+&TOKEN=12661339+&TARGET=VIEW
This is also true in Ohio. It’s at the Ohio Supreme Court right now, but our “charter sector” is so incredibly corrupt I think I know how this will turn out.
The state auditor says he will audit the authorizers (authorizers get a kick back and then a cut of the proceeds when they “sponsor” a charter) but he won’t. He’s already backed off it due to political from pressure from ed reformers.
Ironically enough, the case in Ohio came from charter school parents. The operator was ripping them off. They have no legal remedy, so far. That’s not taxpayers, who also got robbed of course, that’s THE PARENTS of the kids in the schools. They can’t even get the books opened.
I wonder if the aggrieved parents in the Ohio charter school case could file a class-action breach of contract claim against the charter and, through discovery, get complete access to the books and all communications (including those with the state), using a forensic accountant to, in essence, conduct an audit of the charter’s operations. I’m sure plenty of supporters of quality public education for all would be happy to contribute to such an effort.
Amazing. Down is up and up is down. Charters have it both ways.
That is how privatization of a public entity escapes accountability: Cry “public” when pubilc funds are being doled out; cry “private” when it comes time to be held accountable for those funds.
Legislation specifically detailing this “public-private” esacpe from accountability is long overdue.
It’s funny (as in ironic and not “Hah Hah”) how quick the NY State Legislature acted against NYC’s local control of its own public school system, just because Eva Moskowitz has friends in high places. Democrat legislators in Albany have already moved forward a bill that seeks to give Gov. Cuomo the unfettered authority to overturn Mayor de Blasio’s rejection of three Success Academy charter applications, disregarding the fact the he based his decision on the negative impact those three charters would have on other, legitimate needs of non-charter public school students. Yet I suspect those same legislators, as well as the Governor, would be very quick to summarily reject the kind of reasonable and prudent scrutiny and accountability you suggesting in this comment. That’s because in New York, as in New Jersey and elsewhere, everyone’s got their hands in everyone else’s pockets, including (especially?) politicians. They like and benefit greatly from the ambiguity and lack of oversight and accountability. It’s well past time that people take back their governments from the special interests and the politicians they own.
ITA with Janna’s comment, above. If Success Academy is not a public school, it should not receive any governmental assistance–local, state or federal–including free or discounted rent in NYC public school facilities. Government agencies need to be able to monitor the proper disposition and effectiveness of the resources they provide to the recipients of taxpayer funds. Eva Moskowitz doesn’t get to have it both ways.
this is why we need to fight , you mean to tell me that charter can do whatever they want with my tax money and i don’t have a say in it the judge in the pocket of wall street
this go’s to show you that they want to get rid of public education
I wouldn’t go that far. Consistently charters are shown to be private. The issue then is in what ways are they public. Simply that students don’t pay tuition out of pocket? The judge does seem to be ruling within the boundaries of law – and I hate charters.
The problem with the analogy to other private-sector services provided to governmental entities is that the charter approval process does not resemble an objective, impartial and defensible pubic procurement process. One need only look to Gov. Cuomo and the New York Legislature rushing to the aide of Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy to see this complete lack of impartiality.
Not all procurements in government are objective though usually you do have internal investigations to keep out conflicts of interests. We don’t have public process on who gets hired or fired, or what brand of rubber gloves the sanitation department buys.
What there is usually, is an internally devised list of approved providers (this is how NYC works) and/or you have to bid out the work to see who will do presumably the same work cheapest.
Now, bidding doesn’t quite work in education because like in construction, there is an obvious concern about the quality of work not just that it’s done – but also the “product” they need to produce is not nearly as clear as it’s much easier to judge the quality of a bridge built than it is to judge every teacher’s interactions with 150 students.
In comes charters through a huge loophole – because the public schools are hamstrung by too much bureaucracy, we’ll introduce a breed of school with almost none of it. They’ll just figure out what works without having to constrain themselves the way a public school would with as many mandates and funding line problems.
Under this dubious premise that charters will be able to figure out what works where public schools presumably cannot, charters are started. Now that they’re started, now let’s make them competition for the public schools – surely the better system will survive. That’s the problem with competition – you need losers in a competition – when’s the last race you saw where everyone won?
Now the charters use all that flexibility they were supposed to be using to figure out what works most effectively with students to use their money instead to beat public schools into the ground with campaign contributions and flashy advertising and other gimmicks to make them appear better and superior and the obvious successors to public schools (though they don’t seem to be making any claim that they’ll do it cheaper for the government even though presumably they can save more money).
Now that we’ve seen what a deregulated education industry does, perhaps we should apply some of the restraints we apply to other government contracts to ensure quality. Since charters abuse their flexibility rather than using their magic pixie dust to improve education for all students (since public schools could never mimic the charter model and still have a functioning system for all students), there should at least be MINIMAL conditions to look at them by. Opening their books to public scrutiny should be at least a starting point – if not actually being accountable for how they use the money.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli ran an audit many years ago that proved charters were counseling out students. Then, when he ran 4 years ago, many Democrats and Republicans wanted him out of office and ran pro-charter candidates in the Democratic primary who said they would not audit charters. Bloomberg even back one of them who outspent DiNapoli. But parents supported DiNapoli and he won both the primary and the election. This is why I supported DiNapoli and voted for him in the primary. I certainly hope he appeals this decision. But I imagine the charters people and Cuomo want him out again and will run another well-financed campaign against him. I will still support him.
This is the kind of relentless, grass-roots activism required in local elections in every jurisdiction where charter schools are threatening the demise of quality public education for all (which, regrettably, is pretty much everywhere throughout the U.S.).
Haven’t seen MS around here lately. I’d like to hear him tell us now that charters are public schools.
He got outed a few weeks ago as some sort of investment banker. Someone posted a link to his linked in account.
Guess he is hiding out for a while.
Man, I miss all the good stuff. Thanks.
Yeah, I missed it, too. Cosmic Thinker clued me in. (Thanks, CT).
Lets play a game…see if we can spot him when he returns with a new ID.
Just follow the, “I don’t want my children mixing with other people’s children/problems” posts. You’ll be able to spot him, but quick.
No problem, Ang.
Dienne, Take a look here: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/28/parents-eva-angry-about-de-blasio-co-location-decisions-but-for-different-reasons/
Scroll about three quarters of the way down the page, or do a page search to find the name “borgle,” and look at the link provided by that person, which goes to the LinkedIn account of MS. BTW, now that we know his real name, I figured out that he is the “Matt” who has written extensively in support of charters and SA on Gary Rubinstein’s blog, too.
In case you are wondering, I blocked MS after he broke a cardinal rule of the blog and insulted me by saying that I was getting paid for my views. That may be true for Eva, but it is not true for me. He can take his rants elsewhere.
I appreciate your decision, Diane, as well as the relief…
A recent study found Ohioans are angry at least once a day. Ohio ranks in the top 5 states, for unhappiness. Gov. Kasich and the Republicans gerrymandered away our votes, relegating democracy, to Ohio’s past.
Polls show voters want politicians to increase taxes on the wealthy. Voters know that, without middle class incomes, economies can’t be built. But, the goal of Ohio’s Governor
is to reward wealthy campaign donors, with lower taxes and privatization of community resources.
My state “representative” said he sides with ALEC most of the time, in spite of the fact that ALEC corporations fail to create any unique value in my county. The reason is
ALEC wines and dines my “representative” in Columbus.
The repression and suffering of people has a breaking point. I predict an ugly but deserved outcome for the oligarchs, in spite of their defenders in the US Supreme Court.
So, how’s that for accountability? Why doesn’t the governor look out for the public interest by pushing for a bill that states audits come with acceptance of public money? That might be a real reform. There should be spending constraints like there are with Title I money. Governor Cuomo, here is a chance to show yourself as a real reformer, not a coward. It might cost you contributions, but you would gain votes, Eva and crew can only vote once each after all.
At the very least, it should be part of the charter agreement. Relevant audit rights are standard in private sector agreements. I do real estate law, for instance and tenants usually have to pay a portion of the landlord’s operating costs. Only certain things can be considered “operating costs” and a tenant almost always have a right to audit the landlord’s books to make sure the landlord isn’t putting anything extra in that category. If the private sector is so wonderful, as we’re always being told, why wouldn’t the same kinds of standards apply to the public sector (as well as agreements between the public and private sectors)?
why wouldn’t the same kinds of standards apply…
Why? Well, because private is ALWAYS better. They don’t need oversight, regulation or any of the stuff public sector needs, because public sector is ALYAYS worse. See how that works? Public sector is full of fraud, lazy workers and other bad stuff, so they are worse and private sector is better so why make private sector worse by trying to regulate, over see or audit it by the very system which is worse?
Any more questions?
😉
Amazing how they want to be considered public schools for financial or PR reasons, but they are private entities when their autonomy and secrecy with the books is challenged.
I think they leave the PR to a PR firm.
(Perhaps, a subsidiary of WPP Group)
We get to pay for that too, or they deduct the cost from their taxes under the category charitable giving. For them, charity really does begin at home….and never leaves!
For Twitter: copy, paste and ReTweet as often as possible
Theft 101
How to rob taxpayers & get away with it
Operate private sector Charter schools
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WOW!!! Were they paid to find this verdict…
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Charters are public schools.
❤
Michael Fiorillo: 2014 is the new “1984”—
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ” [George Orwell]
To what do I refer? Charters are just like public schools except for student rights and parent rights and worker rights and not engaging in political lobbying and skimming/forcing out/counseling out and being held accountable for criminal fraud and having to be audited and not putting kids in isolation rooms and, well, all that other stuff.
This blog alone has been the repository of many such comments by charter/privatization zealots that charters are exactly like public schools, in fact, “public charters” are practically another name for public schools, you know, the “good successful ones”—
Except in those myriad important ways when charters aren’t like public schools at all.
And most especially when it comes to $tudent $ucce$$.
It is very telling that the most sacred EduMetric of all, the one that seems to make the most ₵ent¢ to self-styled “education reformers,” is off limits to scrutiny.
But don’t expect the charterites/privatizers and their edubully enforcers and edufraud pr flacks and accountabully underlings to admit any of this. One of those old dead Greek guys described this mindset long long ago:
“A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.” [Demosthenes]
Thank you for your posting.
😎
To be clear, as I recall it, the issue in this case was not “the state” has the authority to audit charter schools. The issue was whether a specific government agency — the NY Comptroller — has the authority to audit charter schools, and what subjects any such audit may cover.
Also, another correction, Justice Breslin sits in Albany, not NYC.
For anyone interested in hearing the opposing opinion: My charter school was actually audited by the state comptroller’s office and got a clean audit, so obviously we weren’t trying to hide anything. But, I think we lost count after 28 audits of various things in our first few years of operating, and the comptroller’s folks spend 3 months at our school.
I’m all for accountability, but the comptrollers audits of charters were mostly duplicative of audits already done or required by charter authorizers. Most of us view the comptroller’s audits as politically motivated and are hopeful that that’s one audit that we can cross off our lists.
BTW, our squeaky clean audits don’t stop charter critics from implying all kinds of horrible behavior on our parts without evidence, including items that the audit specifically addressed and found no issues with. So, maybe having no comptroller audits will be in the anti-reformers best interests as they will be able to make up lots of things and they won’t have pesky facts to get in the way.
Keep in mind too that budgets for charters (at least in NY) are determined as a percentage of the District budget, so charters don’t set spending levels, Districts do.
Thank you for the info. Does your charter accept public funding?
Of course. That’s why we are subject to audits from our authorizer, and why we have to get audited financials every year. It’s also why we file 990s, report on all grants, are subject to FOIL and FERPA, etc.
The question here is not whether to be held accountable, it’s whether one particular part of the government has the ability to do these audits. The ruling says no since it is up to the authorizers (also government) to do.
It is appropriate that we be audited. It isn’t appropriate that we be audited for the same things multiple times by different organizations for political purposes since it all takes resources away from educating students. I can tell you that it is an entirely different experience to get an objective audit vs. getting one from someone with a political agenda.
Oh, and if there’s any doubt about whether these are politically motivated, DiNapoli announced his plans to audit charter schools at a NYSUT meeting.
BS. Charter school law calls for charters to be audited by the comptroller, as in Education § 2854. General requirements. 1., which says,
“(c) A charter school shall be subject to the financial audits, the audit procedures, and the audit requirements set forth in the charter and shall be subject to audits of the comptroller of the state of New York at his or her discretion. Such procedures and standards shall be consistent with generally accepted accounting and audit standards. Independent fiscal audits shall be required at least once annually.”
Auditing is following the letter of the law. Circumventing the law and/or changing the law to accommodate cronies and financial backers is politics.
That was added to the charter law by the legislature after DiNapoli was denied the ability to audit them the first time. The judge this time found that that wasn’t consistent with the premise of the charter law.
So states have to just suck it up and do nothing to ameliorate the situation that politicians caused when they drafted laws that do not prevent malfeasance, such as when states realize it was a mistake to allow charters to pay an independent contractor for their audits? When we are living in a culture where money rules and one can buy people who will say virtually anything one wants them to say for the right price, states are supposed to just look the other way and do nothing to prevent that?
In Illinois, charters are allowed to hire independent contractors to do audits, too. After a reporter revealed that the UNO charter chain operator, Juan Rangel, who had been the Chicago mayor’s campaign manager [illegally, as CEO of a 501(c)3)] and who had received millions in state grants, including a single $98M grant, was hiring and giving no bid contracts to relatives, friends and those with connections to political clout, Rangel just claimed he didn’t know that nepotism and cronyism were not permitted or that contracts should be dealt with in sealed bids, because charter laws said nothing about that. So state officials should just let that slide, too?
Claiming it’s just “politics” is a lame excuse for not safe-guarding tax-payer dollars and not regulating businesses with leaders who are likely to take advantage of laws that do not dissuade malfeasance.
Simply put, it’s shocking, though nothing surprises me. It speaks to who’s running the show in this country–and it sure isn’t in the public’s best interest–nor the students’.
Notice the current blitz of expensive ads for charter schools? Notice the blatant lies they tell? Remember Eva Moskowitz saying, ” I don’t understand the fight against charter schools. We are public schools too. Please keep fighting Mayor Di Blasio… if only to expose the lies and the politicians and big money behind them. Following the mortgage debacle, this is the NEXT BIG MONEY SCAM. We should not be taxed for these schools
NY’s budget is getting finalized over the next couple of days, but it looks like an agreement will be reached to enable the Comptroller to audit charter schools as part of it. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.