My Big Fat Texas Forum Journal - Charter schools owe state $26M

AAS 4/07/08
Charter schools owe state $26M
Schools over-reported attendance

Nearly half of the charter schools in Texas, including three in Austin, have incorrectly reported student attendance, resulting in $26 million in undeserved payments that the state is trying to recover, according to state records.

The Texas Education Agency probably will never recover at least $9 million of the debt because 20 schools went out of business before repaying the state.

Agency officials say that although traditional schools also make errors, mistakes are more common at charters because they typically lack experienced staff or strong oversight and can't generate revenue through property tax hikes or bond referendums like other public schools.

"There is a kind of perverse incentive for a charter school in financial distress to look at (attendance inflation) as a way to get more money," Lisa Dawn-Fisher, a deputy associate commissioner for school finance, told The Dallas Morning News, which reported the debt in Sunday's editions.

But, but they're so much better than public schools. I have to add this part in my comments. Katie Howell a pro-charter school person gets quoted as saying that it's just a small percentage of badly run charter schools that give the industry a bad name. According to the article however the $26 million debt comes from 93 of the 211 charter operators in Texas. That's 44% of the schools who apparently aren't very good at their math, bookkeeping and honesty. Katie, I think you need some remedial math lessons.

So how exactly is the state going to "recover" the 26 million they owe the taxpayers and public schools of Texas. Why don't we just send the bill to James Leininger - the voucher king.

Sonia