When schools are freed from rules and red tape, students can reach new heights educationally, or so the reasoning goes. But freedom and lack of school oversight can also result in some new lows - including corruption, mismanagement, inadequate instruction and curriculum, and endangerment of student lives.
In response to charter school scandals, the rules have been tightened. Restrictions are a step in the right direction, but school districts still lack adequate funding, resources and guidelines to properly monitor charter schools.
Here are some of the worst abuses in California charter schools:
- The state controller's office charged the Cato II School of Reason in Victorville with diverting an estimated $1.5 million in state education funds to more than 40 private schools. The school was closed in 1998.
- Gateway Charter Academy had to close its 14 sites in 2002 after it was found to be teaching Islamic religion, charging tuition and putting convicted felons in teaching positions. Fresno Unified, which granted Gateway its charter, found that the school had opened satellite campuses as far away as Compton and Oakland, making oversight impossible. Gateway claimed to be educating 600 students, but Fresno officials said that many students had never set foot in any Gateway school.
- The Oakland Learning Center and the Union City Collegiate Academy were found to be using textbooks that taught creationism. The Oakland Learning Center was cited by the state for allowing three aides to preside over 60 students in grades K-12; there was only one credentialed teacher on-site.
- The owners of for-profit HomeSmartKids of Contra Costa County, Rod and Joslyn Pocock, were accused of taking 37.5 percent of all school funds ($517,892) for their services. Under their contract, the fee was to grow to 43.5 percent in three years. Their high management fees prompted new state finance laws.
- Sierra Summit's charter was revoked when then state Controller Kathleen Connell reported that four satellites taught religion, 14 lacked credentialed instructors and 13 had converted illegally from private schools. Charter operator Jeff Bauer could not verify the existence of several hundred students that were supposedly enrolled, and no students were found to have attended class for the required amount of time.
- The Prosser Creek Charter School - whose satellite campuses in Sacramento, Yuba City and South Lake Tahoe were recently declared illegal under new state law - had its charter revoked last month when it was found to be $3.4 million in debt. According to accounts in the Sierra Sun, the Tahoe-Truckee school district is faced with using the entire $1 million it has in reserves to take care of the influx of students who are left without a school (approximately 300 children in the North Shore-Truckee area). In addition, Wedbush Morgan Securities (WMS), an underwriter and bondholder of two Prosser Creek bond issues, said the district's revocation of the charter exposed it to bondholder liability. "WMS intends to vigorously pursue every available legal remedy to recover losses caused by such an action," wrote the company's attorney. The owner of Charles Fish Investments, the charter school's largest creditor, has threatened "an avalanche of litigation." Such lawsuits put the regular school program in jeopardy.
- Auditors accused Indio Charter School in Riverside County of not properly keeping track of cash receipts, incorrectly reporting attendance and not serving special education students according to their needs.
- The California Charter Academy, the state's largest charter school, has been accused of misusing the $36.7 million in public money it receives each year - and not spending enough on teachers and students. The school, based in Victorville in San Bernardino County, has 68 campuses monitored by four small school districts. There is strong dispute as to whether the satellites are legal under new law governing the operation of satellite campuses. The state has accused CCA of improper attendance counting and violations of health and safety standards at some sites.
