One Less Bell To Answer

Charter schools, publicly funded but privately managed, typically must account on an annual basis to state and local education officials. (PHOTO: SHARON McCLOSKEY/NEWS21)

It’s been four years since the New York State Legislature authorized the State Comptroller to audit all public schools, including charter schools.

And almost two years since the charter schools began their constitutional challenge to that legislation.

Now, the charter schools have an answer.  Sort of.

Yes, the New York Court of Appeals said, the charter schools were right.  They don’t have to be audited by the state comptroller.  For now, but that could change.

The battle began in late 2007, when the comptroller notified 31 charter schools in New York City that he had scheduled a performance audit of the schools.  Shortly after, 15 of those schools filed a lawsuit in state court, claiming that a 2005 amendment to the Education Law authorizing comptroller audits of charter schools violated the state constitution.

The case wound its way through the system, landing in New York’s highest court this winter.   There, Justice Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, writing for the Court in New York Charter School Association  v.  DiNapoli, agreed with the charter schools.  The Court ruled that since charter schools are not political subdivisions of the state, the comptroller was not allowed to audit them.

The June 25^th decision gets at the heart of the charter school dilemma. What are they: public schools, or not?  By law, charters are “independent and autonomous schools.”  But, they operate with taxpayer money, and therefore should be accountable to the public.

The comptroller’s push for a broader performance audit, as opposed to a strictly fiscal audit, loomed in the background as the justices considered the case.  Members of the court wondered aloud during oral argument whether comptroller intervention into charter school curriculum or pedagogy issues would undermine the spirit and purpose of the charter mission to be innovative and relatively autonomous.

The debate is likely not yet settled. Though all the justices concurred with the result, they did not necessarily agree with the analysis. Two of the seven judges hinted that the comptroller should stay away from academic audits, but more limited financial audits might be constitutionally permissible. Chief Judge Lippman went even further, saying “we do not hold that charter schools may never be audited by the State Comptroller.”

So the handwriting on the wall might not be so clear.  For now, though, the Court’s ruling is good news for charter schools.  Comptroller audits would have added another layer of oversight to charters in terms of time and cost. They are already subject to oversight by the State Board of Regents and their own local school districts. Charters must submit annual reports, complete with school report cards and financial statements with independent audits.

And, of course, the ultimate audit is still in play. Charter schools must pass a five-year performance evaluation before their contracts are renewed.