Hawaii Charter School Funding Threatened In Wake of Nepotism Charges
Hawaii charter schools could face some new funding challenges this year because of the misconduct of a few schools — or one in particular: .
Several questions at Wednesday centered on the online public charter academy, which has been lately for concerns about nepotism in its hiring practices.
“You are here before us now, and you’re going to be before us again asking for funding, and I don’t feel there has been sufficient accountability for charter school administrations and school boards,” said Sen. Michelle Kidani, vice chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. She directed her remarks at Ruth Tschumy, chairwoman of the , which is responsible for approving, denying and revoking school charters.
Hawaii’s 31 public charter schools, which have about 8,000 students, together receive more than $60 million per year from the Hawaii state budget and report to their own school boards, which are in charge of school policies and hiring practices.
“To me this is an in-your-face, ‘you don’t control us’ type of attitude,” Kidani said about the academy’s administrators. Earlier this month, Myron B. Thompson principal Diana Oshiro neglected to provide the Charter School Review Panel with a draft of the school’s new hiring policies and procedures, after being instructed to do so.
“I think because taxpayer dollars fund these schools, seriously your body should look at whether they receive funding,” Kidani told the review panel chairwoman. “It’s not just the nepotism, but other underlying issues. They don’t want to be questioned, and I believe there’s a reason for it.”
Tschumy said she hopes legislators don’t paint the entire charter school community with the same broad brush. She fears that Myron B. Thompson Academy’s reputation will taint public perception of charter schools.
“We feel most of our charter schools are doing everything just right, and this school is not, clearly,” she said.
Sen. Pohai Ryan suggested that all charter school funding could be impacted until there is a better system for holding charters accountable.
“Funding is a very difficult thing to support until there is better governance,” she told Tschumy.
Kidani urged Tschumy and the review panel to pick up the pace on holding the academy accountable.
“There have been other examples of when the CSRP would drag their feet a bit,” Kidani said. “It’s a new day, and I hope that policies will kick in soon.”
