Charter School's Caribbean Rewards Are Criticized

A disclosure that a Bronx charter school has been rewarding its teachers with all-expenses-paid trips to the Caribbean is opening up a debate on the appropriate use of money in public education.

Educators at KIPP Academy New York, the lodestar of a growing network of successful public charter schools, said yesterday their system of bonuses is the best way to help children learn.

More than 90% of students are meeting math standards, and graduates of the city's four middle schools go to college at an 80% rate, the school's superintendent and founder, Dave Levin, said.

Critics such as the state comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, who issued the report about the rewards system yesterday, said public schools should be more prudent. Mr. DiNapoli's report cites the school's failure to check the criminal records of all its teachers; its weak documentation for end-of-year bonuses, and trips to the Bahamas last June and the Dominican Republic the year before.

The money to pay for the trips, which cost a total $67,951, came from a bank account that mixes public taxpayer dollars with privately raised donations, according to a report.

Mr. Levin said the money came purely from private donations.

In a statement, Mr. DiNapoli suggested the distinction was not important. "Money intended for education should be spent on education," he said.

KIPP staff members said the retreats are fundamental to keeping energetic teachers knowledgeable and inspired. Mr. Levin agreed to make some changes in accounting practices, but said trips would continue.

Mr. DiNapoli, whose last audit on schooling in the city also focused on charter schools, said in a statement that the report is part of a mandate to audit all New York charter schools and school districts by 2010.

A senior fellow at the Fordham Foundation, Chester Finn, challenged the focus on charter schools. "I don't know him at all, but it sounds like he's on an anti-charter warpath," Mr. Finn said.

"I think they should be able to fly around the world in first class if administrators think that will keep up the good results," he said. A parent advocate for smaller class sizes, Leonie Haimson, said the spending on retreats is "not Kosher."

"If KIPP raises a surplus, it should go to lowering class sizes or paying for books for kids," Ms. Haimson said.

This is not the first time KIPP's retreats have come under a government lens. Last December, the federal Department of Education's inspector general chastised KIPP for using federal grants to pay for more than $7,500 in alcohol and entertainment on several retreats, including a math retreat in New York City and a leadership retreat in Cancun.