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If you wanted to create chaos and opportunities for self-dealing, you might look at our charter schools as a model. Substantial public dollars are at stake. A small charter with only 200 students could easily receive $1 million to $2 million a year. It goes up from there.
These numbers create temptation that is only increased by limited oversight and poor management. Remember that the Department of Education and the State Board of Accounts supervise about 275 traditional school districts and well over 100 charter schools.
Any effort to supervise is undercut by the charter school’s management structure. Basically, a group of enthusiasts led by an education entrepreneur creates a self-selected board and operates out of public view. Contrast this with our elected school boards that are overseen by taxpayers who vote.
So, let’s look at what three recent incidents tell us about how all this works out.
◗ Episode one: The missing million at Tindley schools.
Last winter, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois brought down an indictment against the now former CEO of Tindley Accelerated Schools in Indianapolis that charges he misappropriated more than $1 million from this charter network with some 975 pupils. The money allegedly went to pay for a mortgage, a family reunion at a casino and other improper uses. Tindley clearly failed to monitor its use of public funds over an extended period. The system’s authorizer and state and/or local charter school oversight boards also seem to have dropped the ball.
◗ Episode two: Who’s on first at an east-side charter building?
It’s hard to know what’s going on in the complex mess at Andrew J. Brown Academy. The school has parted ways with National Heritage Academy, the for-profit education management organization that has run the charter school since 2003. Low test scores, unstable leadership, high staff turnover and failures to meet special education requirements have all contributed to this split.
Currently housed in a National Heritage Academy building rented to the local school for $800,000 a year, the Andrew J. Brown Academy must now scramble to find a new building for the next school year. NHA has stated that it is not in negotiations with the Andrew J. Brown board regarding the building but is open to conversation. The academy’s board is understandably confused by all this. So is the public.
◗ Episode three: If at first you don’t succeed as a charter, become a “private school.”
First, the charter school was known as Ignite Achievement Academy, then it was The Genius School, now it is becoming a private school.
After being removed from IPS’ autonomous schools for poor academic performance and high staff turnover, Ignite Achievement Academy renamed itself The Genius School and became an unaffiliated charter school in 2022. Now in 2024 facing the same issues, it seeks to rebrand itself once more: this time as a private school.
Despite previous concerns, the State Board of Education voted unanimously to give provisional accreditation to The Genius School as a private school. This means organizers will now be able to take advantage of the ever-expanding voucher program to fund themselves.
◗ Conclusion: What have we wrought?
We have created a “school choice market.” A freewheeling market. All funded by taxpayers and left to failing oversight at multiple levels. The few really successful charters are left to serve as a fig leaf for the failings of this market.•
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DeLaney, an Indianapolis attorney, is a Democrat representing the 86th District in the Indiana House of Representatives. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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