Office aims to improve charter schools
The state has formed a new office in the Department of Education dedicated to working with and overseeing charter schools amid recent concerns by state fiscal watchdogs about state oversight of charters.
Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement Wednesday the schools “play an important role in our education system, but that role must be accompanied by sufficient oversight,” and he said creation of the Division of Charter Schools “will allow us to maximize our resources to not only ensure charters are being properly supported, but that they are being held accountable to taxpayers.”
Spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan said Wolf made the move pursuant to a campaign trail promise he made before his 2014 election.
Department of Education spokeswoman Nicole Reigelman said there were 132,860 students enrolled in 175 charter schools in 2015-16.
Proponents of charters – which are publicly funded but operate independently of local school districts – say they have more flexibility and offer students and their families an alternative to traditional public schools.
Bob Fayfich, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, said the advocacy group is “cautiously optimistic” about Wolf’s announcement.
“If this initiative is consistent with other actions by the governor relative to undermining the viability of charter schools, regardless of how effective they are in educating children, then this new Charter Office is something to be concerned about,” he said in a statement. “If, however, this new division is truly dedicated to listening to charter schools and improving public education for all students in Pennsylvania, then we will be supportive.”
Sheridan said cyber and brick-and-mortar charter schools aren’t currently held to the same academic and financial standards as their traditional counterparts in public education.
“And that’s a problem,” he said.
Wolf’s statement said the office’s functions will include reviews of fiscal and educational programs and “focused attention” on charters’ reauthorization process.
Sheridan said the new office will have a staff of four, including a chief. Two of the employees will be new hires. He said personnel costs associated with the new office will come from “existing budgetary resources.”
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released findings on Thursday that included a “lack of clarity” in the charter school law and the Department of Education’s policies for handling appeals by school districts that object when their subsidy funds are withheld to go instead to charter schools.
DePasquale said in a letter outlining the audit findings the charter school law “gives authority to PDE to withhold money to pay a charter school, but does not specify how and by whom a school district will be refunded if the withholdings were subsequently found to be unwarranted.”
In releasing an audit of Propel Schools in Allegheny County Aug. 3, DePasquale’s office questioned $376,921 in lease reimbursements the charter school system received from December 2010 to April 2016 because of “potential conflicts of interest and related-party transactions between the landlord and the charter school.”
He said auditors from his office since 2013 have identified a total of $2.5 million in “questionable” lease payments from the state to charter schools.