In its continuing investigation of charter schools in Michigan, the Detroit Free Press published a stunning article about the powerlessness of charter board members.

 

Jennifer Dixon writes:

 

As president of the board of the Detroit Enterprise Academy, Sandra Clark-Hinton was pressing hard for detailed financial records from a representative of the charter school’s management company.

 

His response: The documents were “none of the board’s business,” Clark-Hinton told fellow board members at a 2010 meeting, recounting her phone conversation with the company official. She resigned later that night, saying she’d had enough.

 

Charter school board members are supposed to oversee the finances of their school, maintain independence from their management company and make information available to the public.

 

That’s the law in Michigan. But it doesn’t always happen.

 

In its investigation into how Michigan’s charter schools perform and spend nearly $1 billion a year in taxpayer dollars, the Free Press found board members who were kept clueless by their management companies about school budgets or threatened and removed by a school’s authorizer when they tried to exercise the responsibilities that come with their oath of office.

 

Board members removed by an authorizer have no recourse in Michigan.

 

“There have been board members who have basically said, ‘We tried to make changes, we tried to instill our rights as board members overseeing a public school’ and were essentially told to back off,” said Casandra Ulbrich, vice president of the state Board of Education, which sets education policy and advises lawmakers. “You have to question who’s really running the show here because technically and legally, it’s supposed to be the board.”

 

In traditional school districts, with elected boards, members can’t be removed for asking tough questions. Voters get to decide whether to re-elect a board member.

 

Examples:

 

■ In Detroit, board member Gary Sands said he was appalled to discover that Detroit Enterprise Academy, authorized by Grand Valley State University, spent nearly $1 million a year to lease its building from the management company. But when he and other board members sought financial information, he said they were rebuffed. “We were … treated as a student council.”

“We weren’t even a rubber stamp,” said Sands. “We were a bunch of faces.”

■ In Romulus, the school’s management company and authorizer put up a united front against Metro Charter Academy board members who sought a cheaper lease with the management company and asked for more detailed records of board meetings and finances. Grand Valley, the school’s authorizer, suggested the entire board resign — and summarily reduced the term of office for two who refused.

“We’re the ones safeguarding taxpayer money,” said Justin Mordarski, one of the two removed. “If we just let that money pass through … it’s just basically state money flowing to a private company with no public oversight. And we said in good conscience, we can’t do that. It goes against our training. It goes against our oath to the state Constitution.”