Charter Schools Are Crooked and Corrupt Money Pits

Charter schools are bad. In addition to taking funding away from the public education system, a new report by the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education shows that fraud, waste, and abuse cases are abundant within charter schools.

These cases, which total over $100 million in losses to taxpayers could “be just the tip of the iceberg,” according to the report.

The report sets aside other issues associated with charter schools (segregations, low performance records, and questionable administration practices) and focuses on activities classified as criminal. It also indicated that the fraud, waste, and abuse are due to the actual problem of inadequate regulation. While this may only be one symptom of the problem, it is a huge one and should be brought to light.

There are, however, reform efforts in progress in states such as Hawaii, which repealed its charter school law in 2013. Even the Walton Family Foundation, which is a major advocate for charter schools, spent $5 million in 2012 lobbying to make the regulation of charter schools more stringent.

Kyle Serrette of the Center for Popular Democracy explained that they expected to find fraud within the charter school systems, but it was not expected that it would be so prevalent.

The study was conducted in only 15 states. The fraud is more than likely much more expansive than what is realized.

“And that figure [$100 million in losses] fails to capture the real harm to children. Clearly, we should hit the pause button on charter expansion until there is a better oversight system in place to protect our children and our communities,” said Serrette.

Sabrina Stevens, executive director of Integrity in Education, explains, “Our school system exists to serve students and enrich communities. School funding is too scarce as it is; we can hardly afford to waste the resources we do have on people who would prioritize exotic vacations over school supplies or food for children. We also can’t continue to rely on the media or isolated whistle-blowers to identify these problems. We need to have rules in place that can systematically weed out incompetent or unscrupulous charter operators before they pose a risk to students and taxpayers.”

The people that Stevens are referring to are charter school executives, such as Joel Pourier, who embezzled more than $1 million from Oh Day Aki Heart Charter School.

These are funds that should be spent on bettering the education and lives of the children who attend the schools, not make the rich richer.

When will Americans take notice of the major flaws and problems associated with charter schools? 

The best move would be to eradicate charter schools, instead of abolishing the public education system, which some Republicans propose.

All charter schools are good for is taking away money from the public education system and taxpayers.

Meg is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire.

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