The American Federation of Teachers wants Missouri to audit the state’s current and closed charter schools. In a letter to State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, the teacher union said it is particularly interested in details about funding and items purchased after a charter school closes.
Missouri currently has 37 charter schools and several others have closed since they were first allowed in 1998.
Fitzpatrick told Missourinet that would be a significant number of audits.
“Well, we just don’t have the resources to audit every charter school,” said Fitzpatrick. “And I’ve been in office a year and a half, we’re in our fourth school district audit at this moment. The districts that have all been audited so far have either had documented concerns provided to us, which have caused the audit to be initiated, or there was another compelling audit subject that was the result of why that audit began.”
The districts currently under audit for financial and operational questions are Francis Howell, Kingston, Independence, and St. Louis.
“We’re very happy to audit any entity receiving public funds that has documented concerns that we can investigate and determine are credible,” said Fitzpatrick. “What we don’t want to do is just throw tens of thousands of hours of audit resources at every charter school in the state without any documented concerns at any of them at this time.”
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded but are privately managed with some of their own regulations.
“We’re happy to audit charter schools if there’s a concern or there’s a reason to do so,” he said. “And if we get to the point where we have enough resources to audit more than just the districts that have significant concerns associated with them, then we’ll probably add a charter school here and there to the rotation of school districts that we’re doing.”
Under Missouri law, charter schools are allowed in Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, and any unaccredited school district.
In response to the AFT calling for a state audit of charter schools, along with a state audit underway of St. Louis Public Schools, Missouri Charter Public School Association executive director Noah Devine provided the following statement:
“The Missouri Charter Public School Association welcomes transparency and accountability and, as holders of public dollars and as leaders in public [charter] education, we cannot stress that enough. We would note that no credible allegations or substantiated questions have been brought to the attention of the State Auditor. If there were, we know the state would hold us accountable and we would be under the same level of scrutiny as SLPS. We remain steadfast and focused on a key task: educating and supporting all children. We ask that all community stakeholders and leaders agree to do the same. We are disappointed with the us vs. them discourse instead of focusing the efforts of spending every dollar well to best meet the needs of students and families,” he said.
The association provided a memo that outlines the process Missouri charter schools must follow to account for unused funds and remaining assets when they close.
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