When the California Charter Schools Association celebrates the passage of a bill banning for-profit charters, it raises questions about how much the law matters.
Carol Burris has closely studied waste, fraud, and abuse in California’s charter sector. Her report, “Charters and Consequesnces” is must reading for anyone who wants to see how non-profits facilitate corrupt practice when there is neither accountability, transparency, nor oversight.
This is her review of the ban on for-profit charters, which affects a tiny number of charters in the state. Those few for-profits, she predicts, will find a way to work around the new law.
California charter law needs to be reformed, from top to bottom, to protect children and taxpayers, as well as to stop the charter raid on state funding that is intended for public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Districts like Dehesa and Raisin City (and there are many more), who have become dependent on authorizer revenue, will scurry to open new K12 Inc. online charters until the deadline. And once they are authorized, they can’t be shut down until they are up for renewal in five years, which gives them a pass until 2024.”
The “authorizer revenue” part of charter schools is under-reported. You see the same dynamic in Michigan, except there it’s public colleges and universities instead of school districts. Ohio is in some ways worse than Michigan, because our “authorizers” have no transparency at all. They are just listed as these entities who take a cut of charter funding- no one knows what they do, what they’re paid, you never even see an individual name attached to them. You’ll see a charter scandal in the paper and the “sponsor” will be listed as an entity and that’s the extent of the accountability. They’re never interviewed or identified in any way.
If my local public school has a scandal (and there have been scandals) we’ll hear from the superintendent (named) and the school board (named). Individuals. With charters we get “Lake Erie West Educational Services” or something, and that’s ALL we get. Anything more than that is a complete mystery. I have no idea why this is acceptable.
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The authorizers in Ohio get a 3% cut of all charter funding that passes through them. That can be a lot of money.
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Changing the title of a charter will not change what it does. California needs to step up and regulate charter schools instead of throwing public dollars at private companies with little to no accountability on their end. California should be better stewards of taxpayers’ dollars. There are too many ways for non-profits to hide their profits.
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Not for profit private charter schools are different in name only from for-profit private charter schools. You say Missouree, I say Missourah–same difference, eh! To the owner goes the spoils!
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I think those in power are simply trying to make it appear they’re doing something about the problem while leaving the door open for self-dealing to continue. It’s funny to see how many AZ GOPers are suddenly tripping all over themselves calling for charter school accountability now that some highly publicized charter scandals have gotten traction when they’ve been looking the other other way for years.
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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 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.
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. Compelling charter schools to file comprehensive public domain financial reports will end the charter school scam.
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Exactly, Scisne, on the accountability front!
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Exactly describing long years of the “choice school” game manipulation in our district: “…for-profits, she predicts, will find a way to work around the new law…”
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I was so hopeful this law would make a small but positive difference. That K12 Inc. will not be forced out of California is a gut punch. Deep, pensive sigh.
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