Monday, August 06, 2007

No Oversight, No Tax Money?

I am of the opinion that if you receive tax dollars you should be subject to oversight. Here is an article from the ARIZONA DAILY STAR about charter schools who want to be exempt from "curriculum alignment''. This basically means that there are benchmarks for achievement that need to be met. The example given is

the state board mandates that third graders know how to multiply and divide by numbers up to 9.



Basically, the charter schools can achieve the requirements however they like, but there are certain standards that have to be met. It seems like an imminently reasonable idea to me, but brings up a more interesting question.

Should every organization that chooses to receive tax dollars be subject to oversight no matter what the legislature thinks. Should there be a de facto acceptance of oversight by accepting public money? If not, how would you govern a system to avoid abuse by organizations that cannot be overseen by public entities? In this case, how would you ensure that schools are actually teaching and not just keeping the money? How do we oversee Charter schools, I honestly don't know?

1 comment:

Curtis Dutiel said...

Agreed. Charter schools get to play by a different set of rules as far as hiring, scheduling, etc. They should still be held to the same set of standards as other public schools (charters are public schools)