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As Congress stands poised to increase funding for the quarter-billion-dollar-a-year federal Charter Schools Program by a whopping 48 percent, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has uncovered that the U.S. Department of Education's Office of the Inspector General has major nationwide probes underway into closed charter schools and suspected waste and financial mismanagement within the program.
The program is designed create and expand “high-quality” charter schools, but it has been repeatedly criticized by the watchdogs at the department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the past precisely because there is no way of knowing whether the money has gone to “high quality” schools.
With the vote looming in the U.S. Senate on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act containing the provisions expanding the charter schools program, Department of Education officials have assured stakeholders that the problems with millions disappearing down black holes is a thing of the past.
Last week, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan calling for more disclosure to the public of information on the impact and track record of the program. Federal officials responded through the Washington Postsaying that the department has stepped up its monitoring activities and efforts to hold states responsible. The message was: all is well in federal charter land.
But the fact that the OIG has found reason to launch major probes this year tells a different story.
- See more at: Charter Program Expansion Looms Despite Probes into Mismanagement and Closed Schools PR Watch
And I got five that says that Arne Duncan knew this was an issue way back when. Everybody else knew it.
The program is designed create and expand “high-quality” charter schools, but it has been repeatedly criticized by the watchdogs at the department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the past precisely because there is no way of knowing whether the money has gone to “high quality” schools.
With the vote looming in the U.S. Senate on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act containing the provisions expanding the charter schools program, Department of Education officials have assured stakeholders that the problems with millions disappearing down black holes is a thing of the past.
Last week, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan calling for more disclosure to the public of information on the impact and track record of the program. Federal officials responded through the Washington Postsaying that the department has stepped up its monitoring activities and efforts to hold states responsible. The message was: all is well in federal charter land.
But the fact that the OIG has found reason to launch major probes this year tells a different story.
- See more at: Charter Program Expansion Looms Despite Probes into Mismanagement and Closed Schools PR Watch
And I got five that says that Arne Duncan knew this was an issue way back when. Everybody else knew it.
