Join The Center for Popular

Democracy, Integrity in
Education, and thousands of
Americans to demand REAL
protection from charter industry
cheaters!
Oversight
! Establish an Office Dedicated to Charters: All states should task
and fund an Office of Charter Schools (Charter Office or Office)
to provide oversight of performance and effectiveness of all
charter schools and charter authorizers.
" Authority to Prevent & Catch Bad Actors: The Charter Office
should have the statutory responsibility, authority, and
resources to investigate fraud, waste, mismanagement and
misconduct. This includes the authority to refer findings to the
district attorney with jurisdiction or to the Office of the
Attorney General or to any other appropriate law enforcement
agency for prosecution if the Office discovers or receives
information about possible violations of law by any person
affiliated with or employed by a charter authorizing entity or
charter school entity.
" Adequate Resources: The Charter Office must have an
appropriate level of staffing to fulfill their mission. The ratio of
charter schools to full-time investigators employed by the
Office should not exceed ten to one.
" Payment Authority: The Charter Office should have the power
to put a hold on the distribution of funds to the charter
authorizing entity or charter school entity.
" Authority to Initiate Corrective Action: The Office should have
the power to affirm, reverse or otherwise adjust charter grants,
renewal or amend decisions made by charter authorizing
entities if charters entities are found to be in violation of state
or federal law. The Office should also have the power to
revoke the chartering authority of charter authorizers.
! Require charter schools to be independently audited on an annual
basis, with publication of such audits available online at the
charter schools website.



Transparency
! Amend state charter law to explicitly declare that charter schools
are public schools, and are subject to the same non-discrimination
and transparency requirements as are other publicly funded
schools;
! Require that each charter schools original application and charter
agreement be available to the public online, through the websites
of both the individual school, and the charter authorizer;
! A full list of each charter schools governing board members,
officers, and administrators with affiliation and contact
information, should be available on the schools website, as well
as from the authorizer;
! Require members of charter school governing boards, charter
school administrators, charter school employees, as well as public
officials to file full financial disclosure reports, as well as to report
on any potential conflicts of interest, relationships with
management companies or other business dealings with the
school, its management company or other charter schools. These
reports should be similar to or the same as the reporting
requirements of traditional school district Board members. Make
these documents available to the public online through the
charters authorizer;
! Require minutes from charter school governing board meetings,
the schools policies, and information about staff to be made
available on the charter schools website;
! Require charter schools to be fully compliant with state open
meetings/open records laws, with compliance monitored by
authorizers. Failure of schools to release documents pertaining
to governing board meetings, school policy and data, or to allow
members of the public to file formal freedom of information
requests to obtain these documents must be swiftly addressed
and corrected by the authorizer;
! Charter school financial documents should be made available to
the public annually, on the authorizers website. These documents
should include detailed information about the use of both public
and private funds by the school and its management entities.
These reports should include full disclosure of the sources of
private funds, and the duration of commitments of private funds;
! Require disclosure of all vendor or service contracts over
$25,000 and prohibit any vendor or service contracts to any
entity in which the charter school operator or a member of the
governing board has any personal interest.

Governance
! Require charter school governing boards to be elected, with
representation of parents (elected by parents), teachers (elected
by teachers) and in the case of high schools, students (elected by
students). Non-parent/teacher/student members of the
governing board should be required to be residents of the school
district in which the school/s operate;
! Require charter school governing board members to live in a
geography that is close in proximity to the school/s physical
location;
! Hold members of a charter school governing boardlike
members of a publicly elected school boardlegally liable for
fraud or malfeasance occurring at the school or schools that they
oversee.