Arizona charter school overseer may seek more stringent procurement policies

From The Arizona Republic: The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools is considering possible changes to school procurement policies after an investigation showed how school-board members and administrators are profiting by doing business with their own schools. Such deals, which amount to more than $70 million over the last five years, are legal, but critics of the arrangements say they can lead to conflicts of interest. Arizona's regulations on charter schools are relatively lax. Nearly 90 percent of the state's charter holders have received permanent exemptions from laws that require schools to seek competitive bids for most contracts greater than $5,000.