California Audit Alleges Charter Chain’s Funds Misspent

California’s largest charter school operators claimed $57 million more in state funds than they should have received, according to the results of an audit called for by state and county education officials.

Founded by John and Joan Hall, a husband-and-wife team of high school teachers, Options for Youth and its for-profit arm, Opportunities for Learning, run eight schools and more than 40 satellite sites where teachers meet with students in Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Siskiyou counties. In one year, the Halls paid themselves more than $600,000 in salaries, the audit says.

Launched in March 2005, the audit found a series of accounting problems and suggested conflicts of interest involving the chain’s education-related businesses and a charity, called Pathways to Education, operated by the...