Peggy Young, a $206,156 annual salary charter school sponsor executive, wants sponsors' finances hidden from the public

 

Peggy Young, of Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, wants to shield certain sponsors from financial disclosure. No wonder. She makes $206,156 per year plus benefits-$25,000 more than the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Others in her organization make even more. On May 27, Young, in her role as president of the Ohio Association of Charter School Authorizers, testified before the Senate Finance Education Committee asking that public funds used by certain charter school sponsors not be subject to public scrutiny. Additionally, she recommended that sponsors should not have to spend all of their charter money on the schools they supervise. Buckeye Community Hope Foundation is a housing advocacy organization.

 

The Columbus Dispatch editorial "Open the books" on May 28 took issue with Young's testimony. Young took exception to the editorial in a letter to the editor published June 7.

 

By the way, audit findings issued to charter schools sponsored by Buckeye Community Hope Foundation total $3,613,768, according to an article in the June 1 Akron Beacon Journal.

 

It is ironic that charter school teachers on the average make half as much as public school district teachers but the charter operators and those employed as privately-operated sponsors tend to make a lot more than public school administrators. On the average, the charter industry spends twice as much on administration as school districts.

 

The charter debacle is an insult to the public common school system.

 

Where, oh where, is the outrage?

William Phillis
Ohio E & A