Charters, STOs, etc., let this be a warning

by

by David Safier
Here's a very nasty story out of Philadelphia about some folks in the charter school biz milking the state for their own personal gain. Criminal charges have been filed. They're in a whole lot of trouble. (There's an online charter in Philly, Agora Cyber School, that may be in a world of hurt as well, for similar reasons.)

Kevin M. O'Shea and Brien N. Gardiner did not stint on the decor of their executive offices at Philadelphia Academy Charter School, where they ran up $145,000 in expenses that included flat-screen TVs, lavishly appointed bathrooms, and a kitchen with granite countertops.

Even $46,000 in improvements to O'Shea's home in the Morrell Park section were billed to the Northeast Philadelphia school.

Gardiner, founder and former chief executive officer, and O'Shea, his handpicked successor, secretly paid $34,000 to Rosemary DiLacqua, the school's board president. She approved raises for both men, and signed off on a 20-year consulting contract for Gardiner, giving him more than $100,000 annually for 90 days' work or less.

Such alleged misspending of hundreds of thousands of dollars in school money from March 2002 to May 2008 added up yesterday to federal criminal charges against O'Shea and DiLacqua.

[snip]

The year-long investigation "shows that people who are supposed to be watching out for our students and our schools were only acting in their own self interest," said Derek A. Cohen, the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case.

[snip]

"It's not the end of our investigation," he said. "We continue to look into this and related type fraud."

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. We need careful, thorough audits of organizations like charter schools and School Tuition Organizations. We don't know if anyone is doing anything illegal here in Arizona, but that's just the point. We don't know. It's taxpayer money, and we have the right to know that it's not being stolen for personal gain.