Repeat Offenders Make Millions of Taxpayers Through Charters

The latest story of charter operators profiting from taxpayers comes from the Los Angeles Times.  Clark and Jeanette Parker quietly siphoned off taxpayer dollars by renting their own property for charter schools and approving their own actions.  The two most striking takeaways from this story for me were:

1. The couple had a history of cheating and lying and yet they still were given approval for a charter school.  "How the Parkers have stayed in business, surviving years of allegations of financial and academic wrongdoing, illustrates glaring flaws in the way California oversees its growing number of charter schools."  On top of that even though there were serious concerns regarding the first school, the couple received approval for two additional charter schools.  One problem with the current system is that there are multiple agencies that can approve and supervise charter schools.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the state of California has 33 government entities that can approve and supervise charter schools.  By contrast, New York has only 2.
2. The lobbying of board members and policy makers not just by the couple but by advocacy groups was extreme with little regard for the children.  "Many of the people responsible for regulating the couple’s schools, including school board members and state elected officials, had accepted thousands of dollars from the Parkers in campaign contributions."  Even when the local school board rejected the Parkers' application for a charter, the state board of education overturned this decision.  "A Times analysis of the state board’s decisions has found that, over the last five years, it has sided with charters over local school districts or county offices of education in about 70% of appeals."  Important to note here that AB-1505 which is currently being considered in the California legislature would put charter approval back into the hands of local education agencies.

If charter schools are to remain, the need for oversight and transparency is further substantiated by the story of the Parkers.  I encourage you to read the entire story here.

*The authors of the Times story suggest that the current system is successful in welcoming respected charter operators such as KIPP schools, which suggests that they are under-educated in the issues even with these well-known charter operators.  Read one teacher's story here.