Posted on: Monday, April 1, 2002

EDITORIAL
Auditor's role in charter spending should change

State Auditor Marion Higa is upping per-pupil allocations of tax dollar support for charter schools by nearly 20 percent.

That's a welcome boost for the struggling education reform movement, although state Department of Education officials aren't sure where they'll find the money, and whether it will come at the expense of regular public schools.

As we've said before, we want to see charter schools succeed. But it seems puzzling that the Legislature anointed Higa, an independent fact-finder and adviser, with the power to determine the amount of per-pupil dollars charter schools receive.

Is it proper for her to decide how much money a school should get and then audit it? What happens to the constitutional role of the School Board and the Legislature to set spending priorities, in the context of all other spending needs? It's not that we question Higa's formula for paying for charter schools, which is undoubtedly complex and based on state law.

Lawmakers directed Higa to determine per-pupil allocations at charter schools in 1999 after she wrote in a report that the DOE's spending formula left charter schools with inadequate funding. In her report, Higa pointed out that when schools fall below a certain size, they bear a disproportionate share of noninstructional costs, and that "small school" adjustments are needed to compensate for those higher costs.

But Higa wasn't bidding to take over the job. On the contrary, she maintained her office would have a conflict of interest if it allocated money and was later called to conduct an audit of the school.

Nonetheless, lawmakers directed her to take on the task, to the chagrin of the DOE. Board of Education member Karen Knudsen says the job should be shifted back to the DOE, which has "more knowledge and expertise" in these matters. At the very least, she says, the auditor and the DOE should work more closely together on per-pupil allocations to ensure parity in the public schools system.

We agree. Higa's office works best when it is completely independent. In this case, it is not.