Major NJ charter school reforms aim to curb nepotism and corruption

🔴 First overhaul in 30 years strengthens oversight and transparency.

🔴 New limits target recruiting abuses in charter school athletics.

🔴 Follows investigations into accusations of fiscal mismanagement and nepotism.

For the first time in 30 years, New Jersey has approved comprehensive changes to hold charter schools accountable if they waste taxpayer dollars.

The reform package comes in the form of two new laws. They give the state Education Department greater oversight of charter schools, which are publicly funded.

New Jersey charter school accountability laws strengthen oversight

The first law (A5936) requires greater transparency, especially for public contracts and school board minutes. Except for a few charters in question, an overwhelming majority of charters have already been following these rules, said Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, who sponsored the bills.

"This legislation establishes various requirements for charter schools, charter school board of trustees members, charter management organizations, and education management organizations," Gopal said.

Charter school athletics recruiting abuses targeted

The second law (A5935) cracks down on abuses in charter school athletics. While charters are only supposed to recruit athletes from within their respective areas, some were going outside their districts to create super teams.

Charter schools are now limited to recruits within a 20-mile radius. All charters now operate within the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, which oversees high school sports in the state.

The legislative package was a year in the making. In the end, it got approval from the New Jersey Education Association, the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, state lawmakers, and, ultimately, outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy.

College Achieve Public Schools scandal drives reform

The laws were in direct response to eye-opening investigations, first by NJ Advance Media and then the Office of the State Comptroller.

Those investigations found widespread fiscal mismanagement and nepotism within College Achieve Public Schools, a charter school network that operates in New Jersey. According to the OSC, the CAPS management agency refused to provide documents on how it spent $57 million in taxpayer funds.

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Investigators found that CAPS executives received extraordinarily high salaries. The network's Asbury Park campus came under particular scrutiny; CAPS Asbury Executive Director Jodi McInerney's salary was over $460,000. The network's CEO made nearly $800,000 in FYE 2023.

The OSC report found other examples of mismanagement, including:

🔴 CAPS Asbury approved payments to a company owned by the executive director's brother-in-law without getting competitive quotes, violating public contracting laws.
🔴 CAPS Asbury violated anti-nepotism rules by hiring the executive director's daughter, mother, and son, without proper approvals.
🔴 The principal, Tim McInerney, who was the executive director's husband, improperly rented out school facilities without authorization and kept poor or nonexistent records of cash payments he collected.
🔴 Employees at CAPS Asbury, including some from CAPS, Inc., were involved in illegal purchases with related-party vendors.
🔴 School leadership pressured staff to ensure payments were made despite knowing these transactions were illegal.

In a statement to NJ.com, CAPS spokesman Naush Boghossian said the issues raised by the OSC report had already been addressed. The McInerneys were fired, though they denied any accusations of misconduct, according to the OSC. Salaries were also apparently reduced — a claim that state officials say can't verify because the network refuses to provide documents.

Boghossian also reportedly said that the costs of the OSC investigation "certainly exceeded the mismanagement it describes, raising serious questions about taxpayer value. Any misconduct cited was isolated, not systemic.”

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