New Report Raises Questions About Charter Schools And Finances

A report released today from Minnesota 2020 raises questions about how charter schools are managing their finances.News 12's Jennifer Hudspeth checked in with Minnesota New Country School in Henderson to find out how their funds are shaping up.The Minnesota New Country School is known for their high achievement scores.In fact they're recognized as one of the top 8 Charter Schools in the nation.Jim Wartman says, "That was a huge honor for us."But not an honor, was being named as a charter school to have at least one financial irregularity in their audit of the 2006-2007 school year.Minnesota 2020 reports that 4 out of 5 charter schools have a problem.John Van Hecke says, "It suggests that this is something that is meant for the public and the state of Minnesota to sit up and pay attention to and sign the changes, and we know the change is possible.One out of every 5 charter schools had a clean audit, they did everything exactly the way they were supposed to."Jennifer Hudspeth says, "While the report does mention the Minnesota New Country School has a few discrepancies, school officials say not all of the information in the report is accurate."Jim Wartman says, "The discrepancies they're raising have been brought to our attention by the audit and they're accepted by our auditors as saying this school can't do anything about this because they are small, in our view we are running things in a common sense way."Discrepancies in the report ranged from making sure that no single official has control of the schools funds, to schools who don't have a proper collateral for deposit insurance.The audit Minnesota 2020 looked at was several years old.New Country School officials say they've since fixed their problems, and other charter schools probably have too.Dee Thomas says, "I think some of the things out of this report have been taken care of already through new legislation that has happened in this session, so there's about 35 new laws that will affect charter schools."Schools like Minnesota New Country who say they're money goes to the kids...Dee says, "After 15 years, to never be in a rut, we must be doing something right."In Henderson, Jennifer Hudspeth News 12.



 


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