New York Taxpayers Want Accountability and Transparency of Publicly Funded Charter Schools
(Long Island, NY) The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the Center for Popular Democracy and Citizen Action of New York are calling for accountability and transparency for privately run, but publicly funded charter schools.
The lack of accountability and transparency, which runs counter to being publicly funded, has led to many incidents of fraud, waste and abuse. See report here. Most recently, this unfettered use of public funds tempted the former chief financial officer at Oracle Charter School in Buffalo to overpay herself by more than $27,000 in 2013.
Krista B. Schultz pleaded guilty last week to third-degree grand larceny in connection with a payroll fraud and faces up to seven years in prison. This is the same city in which the favoring of charter schools are closing down public schools that are, by law, under strict regulations on the use of their public funds.
This news follows a recently released poll from In the Public Interest, the Center for Popular Democracy and AQE in which 89 percent of New Yorkers feel that charter schools should be audited by the state on a regular basis. Another 84 percent said charter schools should be required to release how they spend public dollars to the public, as is again required of all public schools.
“Once again, we see that unrestricted handouts of taxpayer dollars to charter schools is insane,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director of AQE. “New York State either needs to stop doling out money to charter schools or make them fully fiscally accountable, as all public schools are. For months, we have urged our Governor and lawmakers to stand with taxpayers and public schools. It’s time they did or this kind of fraud will continue to occur.”
“Last year we studied the New York charter school financial oversight system and found that New York State auditors had found over $28 million in fraud, waste, or mismanagement,” said Kyle Serrette, Director of Education at the Center for Popular Democracy in Washington DC. “We also found that New York had invested heavily in growing the number of charter schools while significantly underinvesting in oversight. For example, fewer than half of all New York charter schools have ever been audited by state or local auditors. We will continue to see cases like Oracle Charter School until address the holes in New York’s charter school law.”
“How many times do we need to read about inappropriate use of taxpayer money at charter schools before there is real accountability?” asked Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York. “While fraud and abuse continues at charters, public schools are being starved of resources to provide all children with essential programs.”
