State treasurer asks charter schools to put finances online
COLUMBUS —
State Treasurer Josh Mandel is cajoling thousands of local governments, public universities, the Ohio pension systems and others to post their expenditures on his government transparency website, OhioCheckbook.com, but until recently he had omitted Ohio’s 395 charter schools – an entire wing of public education that costs taxpayers nearly $1 billion in state funding each year – from his call list.
Following an inquiry from the Dayton Daily News about why charters had not been approached, Mandel’s office sent letters to 374 community school operators inviting them to post their daily expenditures on OhioCheckbook.com at no cost to the schools. “I look forward to partnering with you to shine sunlight on spending and help showcase your school as a leader in government transparency,” Mandel’s form letter concludes.
Eighteen bricks-and-mortar charter schools — 4.8 percent of the total — committed to posting their spending data on OhioCheckbook.com, according to Mandel press secretary Chris Berry. He noted the online schools had been inadvertently left off the list but letters later went out to them.
“We don’t plan on sending (the letter) to the (charter school) management companies as the online checkbook is not intended for private sector business expenditures,” Berry said.
In Ohio, each charter school has a sponsor, or authorizer, which monitors compliance with laws and regulations. The sponsor may operate the school or hire a for-profit or non-profit management company to hire personnel, lease property, pay utilities and handle day-to-day operations. That means that even if the online and site charter schools join, Ohioans won’t be able to see details on large swaths of community school spending.
Donors with connections to charter schools have contributed more than $117,000 to Mandel’s state campaign account. The biggest chunk — $86,390 — came from Ann and David Brennan, who founded White Hat Management in 1998. The company is the largest for-profit charter school operator in the state.
In 1997, Ohio lawmakers authorized charter schools, which are taxpayer funded but operate independent of any school board. Nearly 20 years later, 120,000 of Ohio’s 1.7 million public school students attend 395 charter schools at a cost of almost $1 billion. Some 80,000 students attend site-based charter schools while 40,000 attend e-schools.
Ohio charter schools have been the focus on FBI investigations, state audits and media scrutiny over attendance scandals, test rigging and public corruption. On balance, charter schools academic performance is sub-par, with more than 60 percent of schools receiving a D or F, according to the Ohio Department of Education’s State treasurer asks charter schools to put finances online | www.mydaytondailynews.com:
