SCHOOL District blamed for charter schools' lack of ethics.

[donco6]

So here's the article:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/90253207.html

Butkovitz slams district for charter oversight “breakdown”
By Martha Woodall

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

City Controller Alan Butkovitz slammed the Philadelphia School District Thursday for a "systematic breakdown of oversight" of the 67 charter schools in the district, and he called for tightening state law to reduce opportunities for fraud.

"In spite of the numerous problems uncovered at individual charter schools, the biggest problem lay clearly with the School District's Charter Office," Butkovitz said at an afternoon press conference in which he released the results of his office's investigation of charter schools.

"There was a complete and total failure on the part of the Charter Office to monitor charter schools and hold them accountable for how they spend taxpayers' dollars as mandated by the Charter School Law," he said.

The investigation, which lasted more than a year, examined the district's monitoring track record and detailed apparent financial and ethical problems at all 13 charter schools his office examined.
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So, the charters were obviously defrauding the state or city or county (not sure how schools are funded in PA), but the finger of blame is pointed at the district for not *catching* them (even though several posters pointed out that the district *did* discover fraud and the charters got a slap on the wrist the first time around). WTF? Where's the accountability on the part of the charters for stealing money? Where's the accountability for lack of basic ethics?

If someone wants to commit fraud, it can be very easy to accomplish - for a while. The further you are away from oversight, the longer you can get away with it. Charters often demand little or no contact with school districts . . . "just send our money and we'll report to you at the end of the fiscal year." But somehow it's all the district's fault for not catching them. This is just bizarre, and unfair.

on edit, How's that?

[Possumpoint]

1. Would You

Consider rephrasing your thread title to clarify that you are talking about Philadelphia, PA., not the District of Columbia.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I understood

District means school district, not DC.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. ditto. n/t

[JackintheGreen]

3. I taught in one of these schools

(by which I mean a Philly charter), and while I was certainly not privy to any fraud, I never once saw an auditor or district official on campus in the the four years served there. But neither am I confidant that the organizing personality behind the school was ever completely above board.

In short, I'm not surprised at all.

Also, I agree that the OP title could lead some to assume it is about D.C., simply b/c the all-caps "SCHOOL" gives a sense of grammatical separation between it and the word "district," as in "The SCHOOL says that the district (as in D.C.) is blamed," rather than the intended "The powers that be blame the ."

Not that it matters. Read the post and it's clear before the first half of the first sentence is done.