OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Sheila Dills, R-Tulsa, won unanimous House passage of a trio of bills that promise increased transparency over expenditures, attendance and oversight policies by Oklahoma public charter schools.
“Charter schools play a vital role in providing school choice options for students and parents in Oklahoma,” Dills said. “Still, we must ensure that taxpayer dollars are protected and that we have an accurate and transparent accounting of how they are spent. We also need policies that ensure the academic needs of students are being met.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister made the following remarks today after the Oklahoma House of Representatives voted to approve House Bill 3644. The charter school management reform measure is authored by state Rep. Sheila Dills.
“This legislation would mean significant reform for oversight of charter school management. While more work remains to be done to ensure there is not a repeat of the problems Oklahoma saw with Epic, House Bill 3644 tightens existing regulations that enable charter schools to be responsible stewards of taxpayer money. I commend Rep. Dills for authoring HB 3644 and thank House members for its passage today.”
House Bill 3643 would create greater transparency requirements for state funds appropriated to virtual charter school governing boards that contract with educational management organizations (EMOs). In addition, the State Board of Education would be authorized to demand repayment of any monies illegally expended by an EMO and to withhold any unreturned amount from state funding allocations. All state funds would be subject to audit, and the measure also specifies board composition, meeting and training requirements. The bill also specifies prohibitions against the co-mingling of EMO and governing board employees and legal counsel as well as against the co-mingling of funds with other school districts.
House Bill 3644 would update oversight and training requirements for charter school sponsors and governing boards and would require the State Department of Education to develop Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS) data codes to correlate with the financial reporting requirements in the bill.
House Bill 3645 is a cleanup of previous legislation that would clarify virtual charter school attendance and truancy policies, specifying that abbreviated school day and attendance policies in current law are the same for virtual alternative education as they are for traditional alternative education. The measure also allows a virtual alternative education school to apply for a truancy waiver to the Office of Accreditation if a student is reported for truancy two times in one year so that the student may continue attending the virtual charter school if the waiver is approved. The bill was requested by the state’s only alternative virtual alternative education school and is an effort to keeps students in school.
Public charter schools operate with greater flexibility than traditional schools under state law in exchange for greater accountability requirements. It’s these requirements that Dills has been intent on clarifying. She’s been particularly focused on reform involving for-profit EMOS. She’s pursued such changes since taking office in 2018.
In 2019, she secured passage of House Bill 1395, which created greater oversight and increased transparency of the amount of taxpayer funding going to an EMO. The law change required the amounts being paid as well as a breakdown of all expenditures through the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System. The owners of EMOs also now must make certain disclosures in public meetings.
Dills said her concern is instances of fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars when it comes to organizations that manage the administrative functions of public charter schools. She passed similar legislation in the House last year, but it did not advance. Dills held several studies during the interim that helped guide the current legislation. She said she many charter school stakeholders had input on and support the legislation.
The measures that passed the House now move to the state Senate for consideration.
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