Doug Livingston of the Beacon-Journal writes that Ohio’s charter schools are notoriously wasteful with taxpayer dollars. And he predicts it will get worse because auditing of charters has been privatized. For some reason, private auditors are far less likely to uncover financial abuses.
“No sector — not local governments, school districts, court systems, public universities or hospitals — misspends tax dollars like charter schools in Ohio.
“A Beacon Journal review of 4,263 audits released last year by State Auditor Dave Yost’s office indicates charter schools misspend public money nearly four times more often than any other type of taxpayer-funded agency.
“Since 2001, state auditors have uncovered $27.3 million improperly spent by charter schools, many run by for-profit companies, enrolling thousands of children and producing academic results that rival .
“And the extent of the misspending could be far higher.
“That’s because Yost and his predecessors, unable to audit all charter schools with limited staffing and overwhelmed by the dramatic growth in the schools, have farmed out most charter-school audits to private accounting firms.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cost-Cutting Is The New Money Pit …
cross posted original article at Quicklink: Charter schools misspend millions of Ohio tax dollars as efforts to police them are privatized;By Doug Livingston | OpEdNewshttp://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Charter-schools-misspend-m-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Charter-Schools_Ohio-Politics_Schools-150604-312.html#comment547959
with this comment which has embedded linked to posts at this blog, Submitted on Thursday, Jun 4, 2015 at 9:23:30 AM
Doug Livingston • Charter schools misspend millions of Ohio tax dollars as efforts to police them are privatized • Quicklink submitted by Susan Lee Schwartz
The permalink works a little better …
Doug Livingston • Charter schools misspend millions of Ohio tax dollars as efforts to police them are privatized • Quicklink submitted by Susan Lee Schwartz
Or was it this comment?
I just found out that some charters make a teacher who signs a renewed contract PAY THEM $2000 if they find another job! And, if they wait until after the school year begins, they have to pay $3000. This is in Ohio.
“Starting next school year, any parent in Nevada can pull a child from the state’s public schools and take tax dollars with them, giving families the option to use public money to pay for private or parochial school or even for home schooling.
The new law, which the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed with help from the education foundation created by former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R), is a breakthrough for conservatives, who call it the ultimate in school choice. And they are working to spread it nationwide: Lawmakers in Georgia, Iowa and Rhode Island considered similar legislation this year.”
Wow. The end of public schools in the US. Ed reformers won’t put up a fight. They’re “agnostics”. It simply doesn’t matter if we have publicly-owned and run schools. Schools are simply contract service providers.
The Obama Administration must be thrilled. Their 8 year political campaign against public schools is bearing fruit.
I have a question. Do we have to allow politicians who are opposed to the continued existence of our schools INTO our schools when they’re shilling for votes? I don’t feel like being used as a campaign prop.
The best part of this piece is how he’s asking questions about whether the funding for charter schools stays with the school.
The authorizers don’t want to reveal where their 3% cut is going. Why not?
Follow the funding. If we’re going to privatize Ohio’s schools voters should know whether the money is staying in Ohio or going to support some other initiative or industry. Am I building charter schools in Pennsylvania?
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
charter schools misspend public money nearly four times more often than any other type of taxpayer-funded agency
Lloyd, how do you embed the link. I have to post those orange address links… how do you do it. At OPED, I embed all links. Links are required when you say anything.
Lloyd how do you embed the linK??? All I can do here is add an address.
And then there’s this.Sandy From: Diane Ravitch’s blog To: sbrehlhce@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2015 9:02 AM Subject: [New post] Ohio Charter Schools: The Money Pit #yiv2685040212 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv2685040212 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv2685040212 a.yiv2685040212primaryactionlink:link, #yiv2685040212 a.yiv2685040212primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv2685040212 a.yiv2685040212primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv2685040212 a.yiv2685040212primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv2685040212 WordPress.com | dianeravitch posted: “Doug Livingston of the Beacon-Journal writes that Ohio’s charter schools are notoriously wasteful with taxpayer dollars. And he predicts it will get worse because auditing of charters has been privatized. For some reason, private auditors are far less lik” | |
Washington state is holding its very few charters accountable to the public. It is beyond me why politicians want to dole out huge amounts of citizen dollars with no accountability. This is beyond understanding. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/panel-gives-first-charter-school-another-chance-to-remain-open/
It really quite easy to understand —
The breed of politicians in question are quite happy to dole out huge amounts of citizen dollars to anyone who will pay them a hefty kickback, often in advance.
Ohio spent the last 6 months reworking the charter regulation law. Now they’ll spend the next 6 months expanding vouchers. Again.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/06/state_senator_in_center_of_vou.html
The public schools that 90% of kids attend? Abandoned for another year.
Privatized audits worked so well on Wall Street… why not use them to determine the financial strength of for-profit deregulated charters?
It seems to me that charter schools are the single most fraudulent and corrupt market sector in the entire country today, no one can hold a candle to them on this, not even Wall St. It’s not a stretch to think that this is by design, that the use of charters as a WMD to be used against public education far outweighs any other value to investors in the charter sector who continue to push the illusion that they are about choice and “it’s all about the kids”