This is the last investigation in an occasional series by the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2024 and 2025 on oversight issues of Minnesota charter schools.
Charter schools receive more than $1 billion a year from taxpayers, but the people who run and oversee these schools often act more like members of a private club than stewards of a public school, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune review of recently released records from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).
Administrators have put family members and other insiders on the payroll despite hiring rules and conflict-of-interest provisions set up by regulators that prohibit such arrangements…