State audit rips charter schools

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Excessive costs and unregulated spending by some public charter schools were just some of the issues brought up Friday at a state Legislative Finance Committee meeting in Santa Fe.

A state audit prepared by LFC staffers analyzed a number of factors and provided the state with a several recommendations. Charter school advocates said the review isn’t accurate because it only talks about 16 of the states 72 charter schools.

“I know from just being one of the schools that was audited that the process was not fair,” Principal Shelly Cherrin of Alice King Community School said.

“One of the first recommendations is to cut the small school size adjustment for charter schools, which would essentially close about 95 percent of the charter schools,” said Lisa Grover, chief executive officer of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools. NMCCS is a non-profit group that represents the interests of about 90 percent of the state’s charter schools.

Another controversial recommendation by the LFC report would freeze approval of new charter school applications. Something backed by public school supporters.

“Today we called for a moratorium on any new charter schools given the state of the economy,” Executive Director Joe Guillen of the New Mexico School Board Association said. “It doesn’t make sense that on one hand school boards are closing schools, and on the other hand there would be new charter schools created."

“I think the best interest of the state is to use their existing resources in the best way we can,” said Tom Sullivan, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of School Administrators. “And our stance is no new programs, not exclusive to charters; we just don’t want new programs that are going to reduce the appropriations that the schools currently have.”

The moratorium on new charter schools appears like it would save money, but charter school advocates say it might have a larger impact.

“Putting a moratorium on growth, cutting funding for charter schools would actually roll back the reform initiatives New Mexico has invested over the last 10 years," Grover said. "I also think it puts us at a great disadvantage when it comes to federal funding."

Putting a moratorium in place would require action by the state Legislature, which next meets in January.