Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance),???.?????.????? chair of the Assembly Education Committee, together with Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), chair of the Senate Education Committee, Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, and Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay), member of the Assembly Education Committee, has formally requested the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to approve a state audit of two California charter schools due to reported fraud, waste, and abuse of public funds.
The requested audit, if approved, will focus on Highlands Community Charter School (HCCS), based in Sacramento, and affiliated programs, the California Innovative Career Academy (CICA) and the HCCS school foundation known as the Doc Smith Legacy Foundation. The audit will also focus on the Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) as the local educational agency authorizing and overseeing HCCS and CICA.
Recently, several current and former Highlands Charter School employees have reported potential fraud, waste, and abuse of public funds at HCCS to ABC10, a Sacramento television news affiliate. These reports include alleged falsification of student attendance numbers, cronyism, nepotism, and misuse of public funds for luxury gifts for staff and students, luxury travel for staff, staff bonuses, and political contributions.
“The whistleblower complaints reported by ABC10 are deeply troubling and need to be fully investigated,” stated Muratsuchi. “While adult education programs targeting immigrant and refugee communities are laudable, we want to make sure that public student enrollment funding is not being improperly used to pay for things like luxury travel and gifts for staff and students, as well as high-paying jobs for connected friends and family offering little to no educational services.
“This audit will also focus on whether Twin Rivers Unified was providing proper oversight over the operation of these two affiliated charter schools.”
This audit request follows a 2018 State Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) audit of Highlands Community Charter School (HCCS), which found that “significant material weaknesses in the charter’s internal control environment increase the probability of fraud and abuse.”
HCCS and CICA are affiliated K-12 charter schools that exclusively enroll adult students over age 22 to teach English language development, career and technical education, and coursework leading to a high school diploma. HCCS provides in-person classroom-based instruction, and CICA offers independent study, known as non-classroom-based instruction.
The Joint Legislative Audit Committee will hear the audit request at their May 14 hearing.