Zager v. Chester Cmty. Charter Sch., No. J-39-2007 (Pa. Nov. 20, 2007)
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a charter school is subject Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Act (RKA) and, therefore, required to disclose documents that fall within the law’s definition of public records. Journalist Matthew Zager filed a Right-to-Know law request with Charter School Management, Inc. (CSM), a private company that operates the Chester Community Charter School (CCCS), asking for an auditor's report, financial statements, and the CCCS's management agreement with the corporation that had managed the school before 2002. CSM denied the request, asserting that it is a private company not subject to RKA and that the state’s Public School Code does not indicate that RKA applies to charter schools. Mr. Zager sued in state court, arguing that charter schools are subject to RKA and that the documents fall within the statute’s definition of public records. CCCS countered that the documents requested are not public records within the meaning of RKA and that CCCS is not an "agency" within the meaning of the statute. Even if it were subject to RKA, CCCS argued, the documents requested would reveal trade secrets and business practices, which the statute exempts from disclosure. The trial court concluded that CCCS was subject to RKA and that the documents requested were public records subject to disclosure. The court found that CCCS is an independent public school that provides an "essential government function," i.e. primary or secondary education and, as such, is subject to RKA. CCCS appealed to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, which affirmed, also ruling that CCCS had waived its argument that the documents were not public records by failing to make this assertion in its initial rejection of Mr. Zager’s request.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the intermediate appeals court. Pennsylvania courts "have repeatedly found school districts, vested with the power to carry out the provisions of the Public School Code, sufficiently similar to the entities explicitly listed in [RKA] to qualify as ‘agencies’ within [RKA’s] definition," the court found. Public schools, which are integral part of school districts, are subject to RKA’s record requirements, and Pennsylvania charter schools are not exempt from statutes that are applicable to public schools. Whether an organization constitutes an "agency" under RKA depends in large part on whether it performs an essential government function. Having determined that the state constitution makes the provision of public education "an indispensable governmental function" and that the Public School Code, within which the Charter School Law is contained, is the tool for implementing that mandate, the court found that the state legislature clearly defined charter schools as public schools. Charter schools, therefore, "are necessarily included among the agencies that are subject to the Right-to-Know Act." The court rejected CCCS’s argument that the Charter School Law does not require charter schools to comply with RKA’s requirement because the only section of the Charter School Law that refers to RKA pertains to the state Charter School Appeal Board. The court also pointed out the enactment of RKA preceded that of the Charter School Law, giving rise to a presumption that the legislature was aware that charter schools would fall within RKA’s scope chose not to exempt them.
Zager v. Chester Cmty. Charter Sch., No. J-39-2007 (Pa. Nov. 20, 2007)
[Editor’s Note: Lack of full transparency in charter school management contracts has posed accountability problems in some states. The Philadelphia Inquirer article below quotes Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools executive director Timothy Daniels as indicating that the ruling is "not a concern" because "most charters are already well in compliance."]
Philadelphia Inquirer By Dan Hardy