A research institute in Ohio took a critical look at Imagine charter schools there and found troubling and familiar signs that the management company operating the schools is abusing taxpayers’ trust. Recommendations from the report would serve Indiana policymakers well as a template for increased oversight of charter schools here.

Piet van Lier, senior researcher for Policy Matters Ohio, studied records from the Ohio Department of Education, including operating agreements between the state’s 11 Imagine schools and lease agreements between the schools and an Imagine subsidiary. Among his findings:

•Charter-school sponsors exercise weak oversight of the schools and present conflicts of interest. One sponsor of seven schools contracts its sponsorship duties to a company that is also paid by Imagine Inc. to provide financial services.

•Imagine Inc. has sold five school properties to real estate investment trusts, then leased them back from the REITs and collected rent from the schools, “allowing opportunities for profit both at resale and as it collects rent.”

•Academic performance at the Ohio Imagine schools is low. None of the schools has ranked better than “academic watch.” The management company’s poor performance, in fact, prohibits it from opening another school in the state until at least one is ranked at the level of “continuous improvement.”

The report’s findings on local oversight and complex real estate dealings are virtually identical to Imagine Inc.’s operations in Fort Wayne. A Journal Gazette investigation last year found, for example, that board members for Imagine MASTer Academy had secretly signed documents creating two charter-school corporations in Texas, where Imagine Inc. was trying to open schools. Questioned about the arrangement, some local board members said they were unaware of it.

Ball State University, the sponsor of Indiana’s Imagine schools, subsequently placed the MASTer Academy on probation and ordered board members to separate the entanglement of cross-membership on the MASTer Academy board and the boards of Imagine Broadway and Imagine Bridge Academy, which was approved to open this fall but has not yet been approved for a location.

Asked about the increasing scrutiny of Imagine Inc. this month, Tony Bennett, Indiana superintendent of public instruction, told The Journal Gazette that he would like to see more rigorous oversight by charter-school sponsors. But Ball State, which collects an administrative fee of 3 percent of the operating funds for each Imagine School it sponsors, benefits only when it opens schools and keeps them in operation.

Stronger oversight of Indiana charters isn’t going to come from the state superintendent or Ball State, the only university currently sponsoring schools. It must come from lawmakers, who have a responsibility to ensure the millions in tax dollars flowing to the state’s 53 charter schools are being spent responsibly. Recommendations from the Ohio charter-school study are a good place to start.