Charter schools on short list to lose state dollars

YOUNGSTOWN — Four Mahoning Valley charter schools could lose state funding if they fail to get off of the Ohio auditor’s “unauditable” list.

Overall, there are 22 charter schools on the auditor’s list of 76 government entities that had financial records so inadequate that it wasn’t possible for the state agency to complete an audit. The charter schools make up 29 percent of those on the list.

Under state law, any charter school on the unauditable list at the conclusion of the 2007-08 school year would lose funding from Ohio, Auditor Mary Taylor said.

Schools on the list failed to prepare proper financial statements or couldn’t account for what they spent, she said.

“There are some bad operators of charter schools,” Taylor, a Summit County Republican, told The Vindicator on Tuesday. “We want to hold them accountable. Included in the budget bill is a provision that state funding would cease immediately” if a charter school, after a state audit, remains on the auditor’s list at the end of this school year, June 30, 2008.

For more, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com