Auditors cite lax oversight of charters by CDE, as enrollment grows
By Tom Chorneau
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
At the last State Board of Education meeting, Richard Zeiger, the Department of Education’s chief deputy superintendent, announced that tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funds have been lost by start-up charter schools that either never opened or closed within a year or two of opening. At that meeting, Hunkapiller told the board that oversight procedures, especially of federal grants as high as $575,00 to beginning charter schools, should be stronger.Hunkapiller said yesterday that now-closed charter schools have defaulted on $5.5 million from the state’s Charter School Revolving Loan Fund, which gives loans of up to $250,000 mainly to start-up charter schools. She said the defaults occurred primarily in the early years of the program, but have increased again ”in the last year or two.”Chief of state’s charter school division stepping down | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/Q75Zkd
Newquist's departure comes after The Bay Citizen revealed that the bureau had not fulfilled many of its fundamental oversight responsibilities, including aggressively investigating complaints, monitoring the quality of educational programs and rooting out unlicensed schools and diploma mills. Enforcement Chief at Postsecondary Bureau to Resign - The Bay Citizen http://bit.ly/Q75I0A
As advocates for California charter schools celebrated Tuesday another double-digit increase in enrollment – news arrived from Washington disclosing serious flaws in state oversight of the sprawling charter movement.
A stinging audit of the U.S. Department of Education’s management of charter school grant money also sharply criticized the California Department of Education for failing to properly monitor charter schools’ compliance with federal law.
The review team, from the Office of Inspector General, also noted that the CDE failed to provide required oversight of charter authorizing agencies and frequently assigned unqualified evaluators for site visits.
The critical report comes as the state’s charter school association announced the opening this fall of 109 new charters, bringing the total number in the state to 1,065.
Charter enrollment also jumped another 17 percent in the 2011-12 school year to over 484,000 – largest in the nation.
Los Angeles County had the largest charter school growth with 40 new schools. Sonoma County had 12, San Diego