For Immediate Release
August 1, 2018
Contact:
Duc Luu, Communications Manager, Public Advocates, 857-373-9118; dluu@publicadvocates.org
Rigel Spencer Massaro, Senior Staff Attorney, Public Advocates, 707-761-5672, rmassaro@publicadvocates.org
New Report Uncovers Systemic Failure by California Charter Schools
to Meet Local Control Obligations
SAN FRANCISCO—A new report by Public Advocates Inc. uncovers a massive failure on the part of California charter schools to be transparent about how they spend millions of taxpayer dollars to benefit high need students, as required by state law. The report also reveals disturbing trends about the availability of public documents and the ability of parents to exercise their legal rights to participate in charter school spending decisions as promised by California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) law. The report, which is the first systematic analysis of charter school Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs) found critical financial and engagement information missing, unavailable, or incomplete at a shocking number of charter schools.
For example, not a single school analyzed for this report properly documented how it was increasing or improving services for high need students, services for which those charter schools received $48.6 million this past year. Even more concerning, two-thirds of that amount was completely unaccounted for. Statewide, charters receive over $900 million annually to increase or improve services for high need students.
“Charter schools are part of California’s public education system. They receive $3.4 billion in public dollars every year and they need to be held accountable for how they spend those funds, just like every other school,” said Senior Staff Attorney Rigel Spencer Massaro.
Public Advocates looked for LCAPs at 70 schools and systematically examined 43 schools in Oakland, Sacramento, Richmond, Los Angeles, and San Jose which had published LCAPs for the 2017-2018 school year. The report found that:
One-third of all charter schools examined had no LCAP online. These public documents were still missing after email requests to the school, its authorizer, and the County Office of Education
More than two-thirds of the state funds generated by high need students—over $30 million—were unaccounted for; of the $48.6 million these schools received specifically for high need students in 2017-2018, there was only documentation for $15.8 million in planned spending
Only 21% clearly measured how they engaged parents in school decision-making, and only 37% described how community engagement impacted their planning process
91% of charter schools examined serving 15% or more English learners did not post their LCAPs in a language other than English
Of the 12 Charter Management Organizations examined in the report and that manage 123 charter schools in multiple cities, 100% adopt LCAPs at a single meeting in a single location, with minimal public comment
Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, commented, “Public Advocates’ newly released report, Keeping the Promise of LCFF in Charter Schools, raises concerns about transparency and accountability in charter schools. The fact that Public Advocates could not get copies of some charter schools’ LCAPs despite multiple requests is beyond troubling. Parents and local communities cannot ensure that student achievement and needs are addressed if the LCAPs are not easily available. The State Legislature should close a loophole requiring traditional public schools, but not charter schools, to post LCAPs on a school’s website.”
Community engagement and transparency are pillars of California’s groundbreaking Local Control Funding Formula law and every parent has a right to know and participate in how their school is spending money.
Abadesa Rolon, a charter school parent in Richmond commented, “We need our charter schools to complete their LCAPs so parents can understand the goals, actions, progress and funding that support student success. I understand how my school is spending S&C funds, but that’s because I’ve asked a lot of questions. Other parents don’t know, because this information isn’t in our school’s LCAP.”
The report calls for expert oversight and improved support over charter school LCAPs, especially when it comes to transparency for funds designated to improve services for high need students. The report also recommends legislation that would hold charter schools to similar standards of transparency and engagement as public schools.
Click here for a copy of the report
Click here for a list of the charter schools examined for this report
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Center for American Progress (Linked In) appears to be looking for a VP in education policy. Diane would be ideal. IMO, she and Carol Burris are too critical to democracy in the positions that they have now. If they agree, how about suggesting Mercedes Schneider or Peter Greene apply?
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CAP is pro-charter. They mimic Obama policies.
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I’m an eternal optimist. However, if the new hire is former TFA or similar to Duncan (his Ed. Dept., chief of staff, is a senior fellow in residence at CAP), I’ll no longer support any establishment Dems.
They may be a lesser evil but, it stops there.
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Well, it’s hard because in Ohio you have to look at the layers of contracts under the charter contract.
That’s the only way you’ll find out about the scandals where the owner of the charter also owns or operates the various subcontractors for services.
The charter is just one contract- the contract between the state and the school entity. That’s the part that’s governed in the state codes for charter schools. Beneath that is all the outsourcing of individual services they do- layer after layer of contracts.
That giant loophole unregulated area is where all the fraud happens. The initial payment- state to charter entity- is easy to reveal. After that it gets complicated.
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“… not a single [charter] school analyzed for this report properly documented how it was increasing or improving services for high need students, services for which those charter schools received $48.6 million this past year. Even more concerning, two-thirds of that amount was completely unaccounted for.”
The money was used to buy Armani suits, $200 bottles of wine, poker chips at casinos, first class travel accommodations for resort vacations, condominiums… Cheers to Public Advocates for investigating. Perhaps one day the California government will do its job and investigate. Better still, moratorium on charter expansion in California.
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The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a report which warns that, because of their lack of financial accountability to the public “CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS POSE A POTENTIAL RISK TO FEDERAL FUNDS, EVEN AS THEY FALL SHORT OF MEETING GOALS” because of financial fraud and the artful skimming of tax money into private pockets.
If nothing else is required of charter schools, there is one thing that must be required so that charter schools are accountable to taxpayers and inform taxpayers as to where taxpayer money is actually going when it’s given to charter schools; that one key thing is this: Charter schools must be required to file the SAME detailed, public domain financial reports under penalty of perjury that public schools file.
Charter schools will cry that this is “too burdensome” — yet public schools file such reports. What would the outcry be if public schools were “freed” of this “burden”? Why, the outcry would rattle the very heavens! So, why is it that private charter schools are allowed to get away with taking public tax money and not have to tell the public on an annual basis how those public tax dollars are spent?
Charter schools bill themselves as “public schools”, but Supreme Courts in states like New York, Washington and elsewhere are catching on to the scam and have ruled that charter schools are really private schools because they aren’t accountable to the public because they are run by private boards that aren’t elected by voters and don’t even have to file detailed reports to the public about what they’re doing with the public’s tax money…especially since genuine, unbiased data that’s not paid for by the charter school industry shows that they perform no better than less expensive truly public schools.
The California Teachers Association, the ACLU, MALDEF, and the California Taxpayers Association should immediately join together in a public information/action campaign to require charter schools to file the same, exact public domain financial reports that genuine public schools file.
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I’m all for accountability, but I’m not a fan of LCAP –reams of gobbledygook paperwork which no one understands. Bureaucracy at it’s worst –or so it seems in my district. I’d be interested to hear if other CA teachers have a more sanguine view of it.
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Making sure my school is spending money in ways that directly benefit the students? Well worth the gobbledygook. It gives parents and teachers on our School Site Council a chance to participate in deciding how money is spent because it requires that we vote and sign off on the expenditures. All the paperwork is foolishly focused on raising test scores, but at least the process of filling it out makes it more difficult for administrators to spend it all on iPads and Chromebooks, or on stipends for their, ah, close associates. It also makes it more difficult for edupreneurs to sell their competency-based edu-junk, since hundreds of site councils are more difficult to persuade than one central office. That said, I do worry that LCAP might just be a way to get more dark money to charter schools and especially district “innovation” schools. I hope not, but even then, nothing is perfect. I lean toward approval of the extra red tape.
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I shouldn’t have called it dark money. That’s something else. Just money.
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Point taken, LCT.
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its, not it’s
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