Senate Education Committee Acts on Charter School Oversight Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2010

CONTACT: ADAM CIRUCCI     
PHONE: 610-692-2112     
acirucci@pasenate.com 

WEST CHESTER (May 4) – The Senate Education Committee approved a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s charter school law at its meeting today.

The bill, introduced by Committee Chairman Sen. Jeffrey Piccola and Minority Chairman Andrew Dinniman, is designed to crack down on financial abuses and increase transparency among the state’s 135 charter schools, which educate more than 70,000 children. Responding to news that a Philadelphia-area charter school had been doubling as a nightclub on weekends, and that a city-sponsored investigation had uncovered numerous alleged improprieties among 13 of the city’s 67 charter school operators, they redrafted their original bill to further strengthen its accountability measures.

The Piccola-Dinniman bill would create an Office of Charter and Cyber Charter Schools within the Department of Education, which would have the authority to receive and investigate complaints of fraud, waste, mismanagement, misconduct or persistently poor academic performance. The office would also be able to investigate the misuse of property; evidence of a pattern of wasteful spending or misappropriation of funds by board members, administrators or staff; mismanagement of school operations; and waste or abuse of state or local government property.

The office could make referrals to the Attorney General or local district attorney, and could recommend that a non-compliant charter school’s subsidy be withheld.

“Most of our charter schools have been highly successful in offering important educational options for students with individualized learning needs. However, there is no question that increased oversight and transparency is needed. We cannot allow the few charter schools that mismanage their finances, abuse the public trust and shortchange both students and taxpayers to give their counterparts a bad name," Dinniman said.

The bill, which amends the state’s 13-year-old charter law, would also:

• Allow parents of charter school students to file a complaint in court if they believe that the charter school’s board of trustees is failing in their duties.
• Provide for mandatory training for all charter school administrators and trustee members.
• Make charter school administrators and trustee members “public officials” subject to the Ethics Act and the State Adverse Interest Act.
• Clarify that Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Open Meetings Law apply to all charter school and cyber charter school proceedings.
  
• Prohibit certain business relationships between local school board members and charter school administrators, and between charter school administrators and their family members.
• Allow charter schools and cyber charter schools to be subject to an audit conducted by the Office of Charter and Cyber Charter Schools, the local school board, the Department of Education or the Pennsylvania Auditor General without consent. The Philadelphia City Controller is also allowed to audit charter schools of school districts.
• Require charter schools and cyber charters to annually provide a copy of the annual budget for the operation of the school that identifies the source of funding for all expenditures as part of its state reporting requirement, including those attributable to a charter school foundation, and identifies the salaries of all administrators and board members.
  
• Require charter school foundations to make copies of its annual state and federal tax filings available upon request and on the foundation’s website.
• Make the failure to maintain the financial ability of the charter school to continue as a going concern a reason to not renew or revoke a charter.
• Allow a local school board to revoke a charter or demand the replacement of an administrator or board member who has been convicted of fraud, theft or mismanagement of public funds or any crime committed in the course of their official duties.
  
• Allow the school district to place specific conditions on a charter school that is in corrective action status when it seeks a renewal of its charter.
• Prohibit the consumption, purchase or sale of alcohol in any charter school facility or cyber charter school facility. Proscribes penalties for violations of this prohibition.
  
• Revise the application procedure for the creation of a charter school or cyber charter school by requiring the newly formed Office of Charter and Cyber Charter Schools to create a standardized application to be used by all applicants throughout the state.
  
• Require detailed organizational information, including all persons, groups or management organizations associated with the school, to be captured on the school’s application.

“The charter school movement in Pennsylvania is strong and successful, and provides high-quality, innovative choices for students and families,” Piccola said. “We will not allow this movement to be clouded by a handful of schools that have lost sight of their higher mission to help every child succeed,” Piccola said.

“Our bill should go a long way in restoring the public’s confidence in charter schools and preserving high-quality choices for young children and families,” Piccola said.

###

» Click here to read SB 1314