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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 18 > Entry
Editorial: Richard Allen Schools backers owe public more
Richard Allen Schools have problems beyond the fact that the state auditor is doing a “special” audit, triggered by the fact that $90,000 in state money may have been misspent, an allegation Richard Allen officials strongly dispute.
The problems go beyond the fact that Richard Allen’s four charter schools, three in Dayton and one in Hamilton, are running a deficit of $234,000.
They go beyond the fact that the schools haven’t always made their required payments to teachers’ retirement plans on time.
And they go beyond the fact that large sums are being spent on management fees.
In part because Ohio’s charter school law isn’t being enforced, problems are piling up, even as the schools are getting comparatively good grades for how their students score on state tests.
Dayton Daily News Staff Writers Christopher Magan and Margo Rutledge Kissell showed in their June 12 story how Richard Allen Schools have an administrative structure that has been patently incestuous.
Policy Matters Ohio — a liberal think tank that has been critical of Ohio’s charter school law and has pointed a finger specifically at Richard Allen — is among the critics that say Richard Allen has no real independent oversight.
Charter schools in Ohio are supposed to have a sponsor that oversees the school’s board of directors. That board then runs the schools or hires a management company to take care of day-to-day operations. This setup is supposed to create two layers of oversight of how public money is spent and of the education children receive.
But at Richard Allen Schools, the governing board and the schools’ respective boards and two other entities that provide administrative support — one that’s for-profit, one that’s not-for-profit — have been tightly connected.
At the heart of it all has been Jeanette C. Harris, who last year earned $220,490. The bulk of that amount, she said, is for consulting services out of state.
Meanwhile, Ms. Harris’ daughter is superintendent of Richard Allen Schools and earned $133,422. Ms. Harris’ husband, the Rev. Earl Harris, formerly was the board chairman for the schools and still attends every board meeting.
The state auditor’s review of the Richard Allen Schools’ books came out just a few months before the Ohio House of Representatives voted to reduce oversight of charter schools, although the Senate rejected that idea. It’s not clear which side is going to win in the conference committee that’s taking up the conflict (and a million more that are larded into the state budget proposal).
That so much will be decided quickly is what makes the situation dangerous.
The state is spending $720 million a year to pay for 100,000 students to attend charter schools. The schools were created because many parents, mostly in cities, were dissatisfied with their local public school. Spending public money to give parents another choice — charter schools are public and families don’t pay tuition — was wholly appropriate.
But charters should be no less accountable and transparent than traditional public schools.
Many people who’ve been in the four Richard Allen schools say they like what they see. They’re persuaded that there are good things happening in many classrooms. Still, that doesn’t mean the schools can be allowed to have a tangled web of connections that limit meaningful and independent oversight of spending and more.
The board members of Richard Allen have to step up. Their allegiance is not to those who run the schools, but to the children who attend them and the taxpayers who pay the bills. They have fiduciary responsibilities.
And they don’t have to wait for the state auditor to finish his review to decide that the current arrangement is too cozy and to insist on some new faces and more transparency. Then the overseers should start asking hard questions about the amount of money being spent on administrative salaries and management fees.
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