If the state of Ohio were a charter school, it could see its public funding frozen and lose its authority to open new offices and agencies. According to the Columbus Dispatch:
State Auditor Mary Taylor says she can't conduct the annual State of Ohio audit for the 2008 fiscal year because Gov. Ted Strickland's administration has failed to provide the necessary financial records.The delay raises questions about Ohio's financial condition, Taylor said. Had the situation involved an entity smaller than state government, Taylor said she would have declared the state books unauditable.
???????Unauditable??????? is a big deal here in the Buckeye State, especially for charter schools. Provisions in Governor Ted Strickland's first biennial budget, enacted in 2007, raised the stakes for unauditable charters so that the state can immediately cut off their funding and a school's authorizer loses the ability to open additional schools until the school in question's books are in order. Strickland's pending budget proposal would seek to make that law permanent. Charter supporters haven't fought the provision except to point out that unauditable school districts don't face similar sanctions and that the law still doesn't solve the financial woes of struggling charters. After all, a school can be in terrible financial shape but still be auditable.
Teacher unions were quick to applaud the law, with Ohio Federation of Teachers president Sue Taylor telling the Dispatch , "If we don't have this information, we can't let taxpayers know how their money is being spent.???????
As lawmakers consider Governor Strickland's $55 billion, two-year budget proposal, State Auditor Mary Taylor agrees , ???????How will the governor know where to go fiscally if he doesn't know where's he's been?" Taylor, Ohio's lone statewide Republican officeholder, asked at a press conference today.
Taylor said indications are the state won't provide the needed records until June, which would be unprecedented.
