Four Valley charter schools at risk for losing state funding

Charter schools on the auditor’s list next year will lose state funding.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

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.

Schools affected

The Youngstown Academy of Excellence, and the Legacy Academy for Leaders and the Arts in Youngstown as well as the Academy of Arts and Humanities, and the Arts and Science Academy in Warren are on the unauditable list.

Steve Dishauzi, principal of Academy of Arts and Humanities said his school and its sister school, the Arts and Science Academy, have upgraded financial record-keeping.

“Any problems have been taken care of,” he said.

Officials with the two Youngstown charter schools on Taylor’s list couldn’t be reached Tuesday to comment.

Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat from Liberty, has filed lawsuits against three Dayton-area charter schools. Dann wants the schools to close, claiming they fail to properly educate children and waste taxpayer dollars. None of those three are on Taylor’s list.

There are 311 charter schools in Ohio. The privately operated schools receive public dollars, and typically cater to at-risk pupils.

Statewide candidates

Taylor and U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich are the only Republican statewide elected officials in Ohio, not including Supreme Court justices. Ohio is expected to be a key state in next year’s presidential election, as it was in 2004, making Taylor’s support important to GOP candidates seeking the office.

But Taylor may not get involved in her party’s presidential primary.

Taylor said former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called her asking for support, and she’s been contacted by the campaigns of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and ex-U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

“I have not been active in the primary and I don’t know if I will,” she said. “I’ll campaign with the nominee.”

She said the amount of campaigning she does for the Republican presidential nominee will not impact her job as auditor. It will also depend on how much the nominee wants her help and how supportive she will be of that person.

skolnick@vindy.com