Closer White Hat Audit Urged
By Dennis J. Willard and Doug Oplin, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Nov. 4–COLUMBUS – A week after taking on Akron-based White Hat Management charter schools for children allegedly not taking mandated state tests, the head of a teachers’ union launched another attack Thursday.
Tom Mooney, Ohio Federation of Teachers president, now is asking State Auditor Betty Montgomery to take a closer look at the books for 33 White Hat charter schools.
Mooney said Montgomery in the past has audited charter schools operated by White Hat, but that she has examined only 3 percent of the tax dollars flowing to the operations.
He said White Hat has service contracts with the schools that shift 97 percent of all funding to the private, for-profit company, and Montgomery has not followed any of those public dollars to determine whether they are being spent correctly or not.
Standing in front of a Life Skills charter school on Columbus’ east side, Mooney said the professional service contract for the school indicates $2.5 million passed through the school to Brennan’s White Hat company.
“That’s the end of the audit trail, folks. We don’t get to know how that $2.5 million was spent,” Mooney said. “We believe the public not only has a right to know how that money was spent, but also the state auditor clearly has the authority to demand access to the full amount of public money that comes to the school and audit it.”
Mooney said White Hat supplies teachers, the building, management and educational materials for the 97 percent.
“We’re not necessarily accusing White Hat of using the money improperly. We’re saying the public has a right to know,” Mooney said.
A spokeswoman for Montgomery, Jen Detwiler, said that if Mooney has specific concerns, he should deliver them.
“There is not a specific allegation regarding mismanagement or misspending,” she said. “We would be interested in any allegation along those lines.”
Detwiler said the legislature gave the state auditor the authority to dig into private, corporate records, and if there is reason to suspect that a deeper investigation is warranted, Montgomery would do so.
She said the law requires management companies to provide a detailed accounting of how they spend state money if the company receives more than 20 percent of a charter school’s revenue.
She said Montgomery’s policy is to give the management companies a choice between supplying an independent auditor’s report or turning over their records. Most choose to supply an independent auditor’s report.
At the press conference, Mooney also criticized recent changes in laws that replaced the state Board of Education as sponsors of charter schools with private sponsors.
He said the sponsors are supposed to have an “arms length” relationship with the charter schools they approve.
The three Life Skills charter schools in the Columbus area are sponsored by an individual that served at one time as president of several charter schools run by White Hat before the 2003 change in law.
“We have no choice but to count on these sponsors to mind the store, to oversee the quality of the schools they sponsor and to monitor their performance,” Mooney said. “There has been a pretty cozy, self-dealing kind of relationship, and that illustrates the lack of accountability for this whole charter school system.”
Tom Needles, a spokesman for White Hat, said Mooney continues to rehash theories that have no basis in fact.
“He is becoming the Oliver Stone of Ohio education. He sees conspiracies everywhere,” Needles said. “In one fell swoop, he criticized state elected officials, the Ohio legislature and anybody else who might take even the smallest exception with his own education agenda — and that agenda revolves around ensuring charter schools do not succeed.”
Needles called it ironic that Mooney held the press conference in front a Life Skills center where dropouts are getting a second chance.
“The real story is there are kids inside this building who are improving their lives,” Needles said.
He said he would leave it to Montgomery to answer any questions about Mooney’s request for a closer look at the charter school funding and spending.
By Dennis J. Willard and Doug Oplinger
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