State threatens sanctions against charter school

The Minnesota Department of Education is threatening significant fines against an online charter school if it doesn't fix problems with its curriculum and graduation requirements.

Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said an audit shows BlueSky Charter School in West St. Paul gave diplomas to some students who had not taken four years of English and three years of math.

Seagren also said the school's curriculum doesn't match state requirements.

"We have given them a lot of support and technical assistance to help them to do this, and they still continue to seem to not understand the seriousness of this," Seagren said.

BlueSky has 30 days to fix the problems, or the Department of Education will reduce its funding by $18,000 dollars a day, which amounts to about 60 percent of the school's state funding on a daily basis.

In a statement, school officials said they disappointed in the department's findings. They said they're confident they'll meet the state's standards by the deadline and avoid any fines.

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