Charter schools' spending 'illegal'

By Mary Vorsino

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 16, 2011

~~<p>Charter schools have been spending public money with little oversight -- or accountability for student performance -- and the lack of government monitoring has resulted in "unethical and illegal" spending and employment practices at some campuses, a scathing audit of Hawaii's system of 31 charter schools found.</p>
<p>"Hawaii's charter school system has been operating without any real outside oversight since the first charter school opened in 1995," the audit concluded. "The contract that charter schools made with the public to provide great accountability in exchange for greater autonomy is not only broken, it may have never existed."</p>
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<h4>LEGISLATIVE BRIEFING</h4>
Legislators will discuss the state audit on charter schools Monday at 2 p.m. in Room 309 of the state Capitol. For more information, call state Sen. Jill Tokuda's office at 587-7215.</td>
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Charter schools have been spending public money with little oversight -- or accountability for student performance -- and the lack of government monitoring has resulted in "unethical and illegal" spending and employment practices at some campuses, a scathing audit of Hawaii's system of 31 charter schools found.

"Hawaii's charter school system has been operating without any real outside oversight since the first charter school opened in 1995," the audit concluded. "The contract that charter schools made with the public to provide great accountability in exchange for greater autonomy is not only broken, it may have never existed." LEGISLATIVE BRIEFING Legislators will discuss the state audit on charter schools Monday at 2 p.m. in Room 309 of the state Capitol. For more information, call state Sen. Jill Tokuda's office at 587-7215. Login for more...