North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper sued a charter operator who got $666,000 from the state to open a charter that closed after being open for only 10 days.
“Attorney General Roy Cooper is suing the managers of a failed Kinston charter school, claiming they inflated enrollment estimates to get state money for education services they did not provide.
“Kinston Charter Academy – which closed 10 days into the school year in September 2013 – got more than $666,000 in state money in August 2013, according to the lawsuit. The money was based on a projected enrollment of 366 students and was supposed to last until October.
“On Sept. 3, the school had 189 students. It closed three days later. The students transferred to other schools, and the lawsuit says the state had to pay twice to educate those students for three months.
“The suit, filed in Wake County Superior Court on Tuesday, claims that school CEO Ozie L. Hall Jr. and Demyra McDonald-Hall, his wife and board chairwoman, illegally obtained and misused state money. They knew the academy would not survive the 2013-14 school year, yet made imprudent or self-interested business transactions, and misled students by persuading them to enroll, the suit said.”
Mr. Hall said the suit was baseless and he will fight it. He is now running another charter school.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article74020632.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
$666,000? Now there’s a beastly number.
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The AG better get out the holy water and the smoky ball for this case.
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SD Poet,
I don’ t understand your post. Can you explain it to me?
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Involved Mom,
SDP is referring to Catholic rituals of using holy water and incense burning as part of the exorcism.
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Free market solutions, choice and let the parents choose with their feet. All BALONEY all the time. The state should also include all the legal fees incurred because of these fraudulent charter school operators (a redundancy).
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Why is it a civil lawsuit and not a criminal prosecution? If a public school engaged in financial fraud how would it be handled?
I don’t know about North Carolina but if public school “operators” steal public money in Ohio the county prosecutor brings an indictment, he doesn’t sue for damages.
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It doesn’t rise to the level of a criminal statute violated. . .they are suing for damages because they violated civil statutes, or so the GA alleges–but not criminal. Just because something seems criminal doesn’t mean it is.
In NC, charters have to have a bond of $50,000 I think (I’m not entirely sure of all that). It wasn’t fraud—it was a failed business and the state is suing for damages.
This is the problem with charters. They are, no pun intended, unchartered territory from a legal standpoint.
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Anyone have a good guess about why we need a dual school system? Both receiving public funds. One required to take all applicants, the other under private management and free to accept those it chooses and kick kids out for any reason.
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How is it that it has taken 2.5 years to figure this out and act?
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As long as charters so not have to maintain exactly the same level of financial and policy transparency as public schools do, fraud will only continue and even increase.
In unbridled capitalism, men are never angels, which is why government was invented . . .
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