Speaking at a long-scheduled hearing on a bill introduced in December to overhaul the 13-year-old charter law, Sen. Jeffrey E. Piccola (R., Dauphin) said he and his cochair, Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman (D., Chester), were putting that measure aside to focus on a new bill that would deal solely with increasing oversight of the state's 127 charter schools.
"As a result of the allegations and the outrages of the last few weeks, our focus will be solely on accountability and oversight," Piccola said during an afternoon hearing at Widener University in Chester. "We must clean up and weed out the bad actors from the charter school community before we adopt measures to promote more charter schools in Pennsylvania."
He said he was shocked by 6ABC reports that the Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School in West Philadelphia was used as a nightclub on weekends. And he said he and his colleagues were angered by an investigation by Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz that found excessive salaries, rubber-stamp boards, inflated rents, and rampant conflicts of interest at the 13 charter schools probed.
Piccola, who was a sponsor of the state's original 1997 charter law, said he and Dinniman believed most charter operators were ethical and ran their schools in the best interest of their students. But they said it was time to address some operators' misdeeds to restore the credibility of charters.
"We have a serious crisis within the charter school movement in Pennsylvania," Piccola said.
Dinniman lambasted what he called "charter greed" and added: "What is especially tragic is that these people are ripping off kids and public taxpayers."
The committee cochairmen said they had not completed a draft of their bill but expected it would create a state office of charter and cyber charter schools responsible for monitoring all charters and investigating complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse.
The measure will include provisions allowing parents to lodge formal complaints if they believe charter trustees are failing in their duties; bar business relationships between charter administrators and family members; allow for regular outside audits of all charters; and require charters and related nonprofit foundations to make copies of all state and federal tax records public upon request.
In addition, Piccola said the bill would make it illegal to consume, buy, or sell alcoholic beverages in a charter school and would call for penalties for violators.
Lawrence F. Jones Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, said his group favored strict accountability for charters and wanted to help make the law stronger.
"The stories of the past few days are troubling, if not shocking," said Jones, chief executive of the Richard Allen Preparatory School in Southwest Philadelphia. "And on a personal note, I am disturbed and saddened. Whether through misunderstanding, mismanagement, or malfeasance, some schools have let the taxpayers down."
Three former charter parents whose allegations of financial mismanagement triggered investigations of the Philadelphia Academy Charter School in Northeast Philadelphia and the Agora Cyber Charter School in Wayne offered their perspectives. In addition to increased oversight, they called for members of charter school boards to be elected by parents. Now, they said, charter founders appoint their friends, then the board members continue to reelect themselves. And the three parents said the damages extend beyond misspent funds.
"The monetary theft and unethical behaviors that continue to take place within these schools is nothing compared to the opportunities that are being stolen from these children as a result," said Lisa George, whose daughter was six years behind her grade level when she left Philadelphia Academy in 2008 because she had been improperly placed in a special-education classes.
Megan Snyder Galo, whose younger son had attended that school, urged the senators to require legislators with direct ties to charter schools to recuse themselves from voting on the bill.
"From an ethical standpoint, no legislator should have direct ties to a charter school," Galo said. "It is a blatant conflict of interest."
And Gladys Stefany, a former Agora parent, urged the committee to investigate all current charter schools "to be certain they are 100 percent compliant so that we can put an end to the scandals that are hurting our schools and the children they serve."
After The Inquirer detailed allegations of fiscal mismanagement and fraud at Philadelphia Academy in April 2008, a federal criminal investigation was launched and spread to at least nine area charter schools.
Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com.
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