Charter Schools Less Accountable. Again. Now, School Sales Tax.

[jaxlongtimer]

Public school educators have long complained that charter schools are far less accountable than traditional public schools and do not serve the same wide range and/or numbers of students, particularly those with mental, physical or economic issues.

Now comes the school improvement sales tax.  Thanks to our "in-the-pocket" of charter schools City Council reps, when finally passed, the school improvement sales tax got allocated, in significant part, to unaccountable charter schools, most in newer facilities that don't face the same maintenance and update needs as aging traditional public schools whose facilities have an average age that is among the oldest in Florida.

Nate Monroe's column below demonstrates this lack of accountability and opportunities for self dealing by charter school operators.  Another example of the City Council favoring special interests to the detriment of the community they represent.

Nate Monroe: Millions of school sales tax dollars in Duval County are pouring into a black hole — charters

COMMENTARY | Millions of dollars collected from a half-penny sales tax in Jacksonville are going to a decentralized group of charter schools across the city, making it far more difficult to track how that money is being spent and to determine whether it's being used to improve school infrastructure for every Duval County student.

That was the core promise behind the 2020 school sales tax referendum: The district would embark on the largest renovation and rebuilding campaign in the city's history to improve some of the oldest school buildings in Florida. When district officials first tried to get the sales tax on the ballot in 2019, city officials allied with charter-school interests to block the effort. They did not relent until the state Legislature passed a law in 2020 requiring sales tax proceeds to be split with charters.

That law, intended or not, has meant that tens of millions of sales-tax dollars earmarked for improving Jacksonville's academic buildings are actually headed to a scattered group of charters with fewer obligations to be transparent with the public, more discretion over how they can spend the money, scant oversight to ensure those expenses are legitimate, and an unlimited timeframe in which they can decide to use the money....

....The nearly $12 million sent last year to Jacksonville charters, however, is a black hole.

....Consider: In the second quarter of last year, 12 schools reported no expenses, provided no documentation to explain its expenses, incorrectly calculated its tax revenue, or "overexpended," according to an analysis compiled by the district and distributed to an oversight committee in November.

Five charters also reported unallowable expenses — more than $400,000 total — though the analysis did not explain what those expenses were or why they were not allowed...

.....Quarterly reports that cover the first half of 2021, compiled by the district and based on financial data provided by the charters, provide remarkably little insight into how the charters are spending their tax money.

The reports leave some expenses completely opaque and make it impossible to determine if the tax money is benefitting students at all....

.....Charters made no promises, offered no timelines, imagined no coherent vision that would benefit every student in the county. Even now, few charters have offered information about how they plan to spend the tax money that is comparable to the district. But charters — the few honest ones, the many mediocre and the plenty rotten — will realize a windfall of millions of dollars over the next 14 years anyway.

The school district would never get away with such obscurity on a question with millions of dollars and the welfare of students hanging in the balance. Charters should be no different.

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/nate-monroe/2022/01/18/jacksonville-charters-getting-millions-school-sales-tax-dollars-nate-monroe/6563852001/

[Charles Hunter]

It would be interesting to know which Council members were, and are, recipients of contributions from charter schools and their board members and executives. Some of those Council members will run for re-election in 2023, and some are running for the Legislature or other offices this year. We should know who belongs to the anti-public school sect.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Well, below is who voted to turn down putting the sales tax referendum on the ballot because charter schools were not getting a big enough piece of the pie:

Voting for withdrawal were Danny Becton, Aaron Bowman, Michael Boylan, LeeAnna Cumber, Rory Diamond, Al Ferraro, Terrance Freeman, Reggie Gaffney, Tommy Hazouri, Sam Newby, Ju'Coby Pittman, Ron Salem, Randy White and City Council President Scott Wilson.

The above also had active support by Lenny Curry.

And here is who voted to go forward with the referendum without charter schools getting excess funding:

Voting against withdrawal were Matt Carlucci, Randy DeFoor, Garrett Dennis, Joyce Morgan and Brenda Priestly Jackson.

Then there was the below which was not good enough for the charter school supporters with respect to the above vote :

....Charter schools would get the same funding of $5 per square foot for security enhancements as traditional public schools. Charter schools also could apply for grants to make repairs and renovations of their buildings, based on the same engineering criteria the School Board will use to portion out dollars for traditional schools that vary widely in age and facility conditions.

The funding for charter schools would be less than what some charter school advocates, including the Jacksonville Civic Council, have pushed for by trying to tie funding to a per-pupil formula that automatically carves out sales tax dollars that flow to charter schools based on how many students are at each school.

If the City Council withdraws the legislation, it would quash the School Board's request for a referendum. The School Board then would start over by voting to make the request again to the City Council. Withdrawal also could land the issue in the courts....

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/education/jacksonville-city-council-rebuffs-duval-county-school-boards-request-for-sales-tax-referendum/77-cb065694-4eb4-4a20-9933-59c9674b44c9

Among the most "out front" supporters of charter schools here are Baker, Chartrand and Rood.  They ultimately appeared to have supported the sales tax once the legislature passed a law forcing the sales tax to be allocated to charter schools on a per pupil only basis without regard to actual needs or with a full accounting on the level of traditional public schools.