An Analysis of the New York Charter School Auditing Cases

Abstract

This article explains how New York’s charter schools have, thus far, relied upon their private characteristics to avoid audits by the state comptroller. In each instance, the charter schools prevailed by demonstrating that they were more “private” than the institutions that the state constitution authorized the comptroller to audit. As context for the private characteristics argument of these charter schools, Part I of this article provides an overview of the hybrid nature of charter schools. This part also explains how charter schools have used their public characteristics to qualify for public funding under state constitutional law, while highlighting their private characteristics to exempt themselves from other laws that apply to public schools. Parts II and III of this article discuss the litigation pertaining to the first two legislative attempts to place New York’s charter schools under the state comptroller. Part IV discusses how other state legislatures can learn from the New York cases to design charter school laws that provide greater protection to the public.

Keywords: charter schools, constitutional law