School Choice & Charters

From Nevada Vouchers to Ohio Charters: The Charters & Choice News Roundup

By Arianna Prothero — June 05, 2015 1 min read
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This week, school choice news was largely dominated by an unprecedented law passed in Nevada. It will allow all parents of public school students to take the state funding earmarked for their child and spend it on educational expenses of their choosing, be it tuition at a private school or textbooks for home schooling.

Meanwhile, charters are in the regulatory bull’s-eye in the Buckeye State... A review by the Akron Beacon Journal found that charter schools improperly spent millions in taxpayer dollars while private accountants hired to audit those schools found instances of misspending at a far lower rate than the state’s auditors. Report’s the paper’s Doug Livingston:

Since 2001, state auditors have uncovered $27.3 million improperly spent by charter schools, many run by for-profit companies, enrolling thousands of children and producing academic results that rival the worst in the nation. And the extent of the misspending could be far higher. That's because Yost and his predecessors, unable to audit all charter schools with limited staffing and overwhelmed by the dramatic growth in the schools, have farmed out most charter-school audits to private accounting firms."

Over and out... Graduating teens talk to Times-Picayune reporter Danielle Dreilinger about their views on the Big Easy’s ed reforms:

A reporter reflects... on an investigation into New Jersey’s private schools for students with disabilities that’s gone nowhere. After finding that leaders of New Jersey private schools for students with disabilities had been spending public money on fancy cars, generous pensions, and high salaries for themselves, state lawmakers promised change. Christopher Baxter writes for the Huffington Post:

The Christie administration has yet to propose any new regulations for the schools, allowing them to continue to operate under a different set of rules than public schools, and allowing them to spend money in ways many consider inappropriate. Officials say they are working on a proposal. The state Legislature—despite widespread calls for change and the Senate president, Stephen Sweeney, declaring, "We're going to fix it" — has taken no steps in the absence of new regulations."

And now for the kicker... Considering this week’s events, I thought this 25-year-old article from Education Week was particularly interesting:

If you have a story you think should appear on next week’s Charters & Choice news roundup, tweet it to @ChartersNChoice or leave it in the comments section below.


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A version of this news article first appeared in the Charters & Choice blog.