Ohio auditor provides necessary scrutiny of charter schools 

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

8/20/2007

Editorial

Charter schools are public schools paid for with tax revenues. Their financial operations should be fully accounted for and transparent.

Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor, who supports the charter-school concept, is doing her part. Taylor’s office, which hosts training sessions intended to help charter-school officials become financially accountable, on Tuesday released audits of 19 Ohio publicly funded charter schools run by White Hat Management. The 19 are either Hope Academy or Life Skills schools.

The audits found multiple payments to board members for single meetings, faulty documentation, undocumented credit-card purchases and other bookkeeping flaws. Brian Adams, president of Ohio Community School Consultants, the fiscal manager of the schools, said the sums mentioned in the audits are minuscule when compared with the combined school budgets of $57 million.

Attracting the most attention were the multiple payments for single meetings. Many of the schools operated by White Hat are governed by the same board members, who receive a base pay of $125 per meeting. In certain cases, board members were paid 17 times for one meeting, adding up to $2,125 per member.

Taylor made no finding for recovery because the practice of serving on multiple boards was legal at that time, but she classified this practice as “abusive.” A law limiting the number of boards on which members can serve wasn’t in effect during the audit period, from July 2005 to June 2006.

White Hat’s chief, Akron industrialist David Brennan, is a major contributor to GOP candidates, including Taylor, who was the only nonjudicial Republican to win statewide office in 2006. Brennan and his wife, Ann, have given the Taylor campaign $60,000 since 2005.

Taylor can be commended for issuing a critical review of the charter schools managed by a prominent donor who supported her candidacy.

Charter schools, which provide meaningful choices for Ohio families, have been under attack for years, with Brennan’s schools being among the top targets. Charter-school officials would do well to upgrade their financial skills and accountability. Every time they slip up, they give ammunition to their opponents.