Hell Hath No Fury Like A State Rep Scorned! Seven Charter Schools Under Investigation By State Auditor!!!!!

Delaware State Rep. Kim Williams is mad as hell, and she is making it known!  The reason for her anger?  Her Delaware charter school audit bill, House Bill 186, is facing some fierce opposition.  But why?  Find out here, from her State Rep. Facebook page:

PLEASE READ VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!! Our teachers are held accountable, students are held accountable, don’t you think our public tax dollars should also have accountability?

Academy of Dover since 2010-2011 has not met or fell far below the financial standards set forth by the Department of Education and the Charter School Accountability Committee. The charter school office reported to the State Board of Education yesterday that in early April they learned of serious allegations… of financial management by a former Academy of Dover school leader. Their financial framework for the last three years have shown there have been financial issues. I brought a bill forward which would require all charter schools to be audited through the Auditor’s Office, currently all public schools are audited through this office except for charter schools, and the House republicans sitting on the House Education Committee voted against the bill that I sponsored; House Bill 186. Family Foundation this year had issues with two former co-directors misusing the public’s money, over $90,0000, and now we have Academy of Dover who is now under investigation by the Auditor’s Office for misuse of public funds. The Delaware Charter Schools Network were there on Wednesday lobbying legislators hard not to support my bill. This is a great bill and it should be released from Committee. I have eight Democrats who are willing to sign the bill backer. During the State Board of Education meeting you hear one board member stating that the Financial Framework would not have caught this. Another board member stated this is happening a lot. DOE Charter School Office stated that Academy of Dover has been working for years on a payment plan, so does that mean folks knew for years this was going on. House Bill 186 needs to be released and voted on the House floor.

If you have never met Kim Williams, she doesn’t seem the type to get mad.  However, once she is, you know it pretty fast.  I’ve seen her and she isn’t the yelling and screaming type, but she is very direct and firm.  I can completely understand why she is so upset about this bill.  Charters, many of them, have been pilfering taxpayer funds for a long time now.  At the House Education Committee on Wednesday, a representative from the State Auditor’s office confirmed seven charter schools are under investigation in their office and no traditional school districts are at all (which squashes the rumors I heard about two school districts in our state being investigated over there).  Three are known: Academy of Dover, Family Foundations Academy and Providence Creek Academy.  Who are the other four?  That’s 31.8% of the charters in this state!

Patrick Heffernan with the Delaware State Board of Education raised a very good point the other day.  The settlement with Mosaica was $650,000.00.  Academy of Dover plopped down $200,000 right away, and has $150,000 due 7/3/15 and another payment of $150,000 by 7/31/15.  Then they will pay $50,000 once a year for 3 years after.  So that’s $500,000 they will pay by the end of July.  Where does all this money come from?  This is taxpayer money they have been tucking away somewhere waiting for this rainy day.  This is funding that should be going to students.  Now I understand why they were being so cheap about paying their paraprofessionals an extra buck or two an hour when they were asked to substitute teach!

Write you state representative today and demand accountability for charter schools!