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[noamnety]

49. A little more info on how charters here work:

"You claim they get less money than local schools. Where do they get that money from? Every charter in our list receives funds from either private sources or from local districts. If the money comes from local districts, they do not accept children that do not pay taxes there."

I'm not sure where you live, it sounds like you might be more familiar with your unique state laws, and might be assuming they apply to all charters. Here's how they work here:

"Can a charter school charge tuition?
Unlike traditional school districts, a charter school may not charge tuition.  Charter schools are,
by statute, free and open to all Michigan residents."


Our funding is the per pupil amount that each student in the state gets, which is based on state and federal taxes. What we don't receive is any supplements from local millages. So even if you live in city X, pay the millage, but send your student to a charter in city Y, your local public school in city X gets the millage dollars you paid.

Audits:

Charter schools are to submit an annual comprehensive financial report into the Financial Information Database (FID) maintained by the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) using the chart of accounts prescribed in the
Michigan School Accounting Manual. The report is submitted electronically, and is filed with MDE by November 15 of each year.  The penalty for noncompliance is the withholding of state school aid payments.  See Section 388.1618(3) and (5) of the State School Aid Act.  
• Charter schools are required to have an independent audit of their financial accounting records conducted at least annually by a certified public accountant.  The audit reports are filed with MDE no later than November 15 of each year.  Guidance for the audit is given in the Michigan School Auditing Manual.  The penalty for noncompliance is the withholding of state school aid payments.  See Section 388.1618(2) and (5) of the State School Aid Act.   
• All charter school financial audits are subject to Government Auditing Standards (GAS).  The book describing the standards is available online by visiting www.gao.gov.   


Does a charter school have to use certified teachers?
Certification requirements for charter school teachers are identical to those of local school district teachers.  Special exceptions are made for a charter school that is authorized by a state public university or community college that may wish to use adjunct professors to teach charter school students (refer to Section 380.505). Charter schools that accept Title I funds also are required to adhere to the “Highly Qualified Teacher” provisions of the federal ESEA. (My note here - since we aren't chartered by a college, that exemption does not apply to us, and since we are a title one school, we fall under the highly qualified teacher requirements.

I hope that clears up some misunderstandings. It's nothing magic, we're just following the laws.