Charter school challenge.

Since 2000, Arizona has passed along federal funding to approximately 30 for-profit education providers controlling an estimated 75 charter schools in the state. A 2004 U.S. Department of Education audit questioned the schools' authority to keep the money and directed the state to repay a minimum of $1.1 million in aid under the Title I compensatory education program and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In late July, however, the state's attorney general rendered an opinion that these schools are indeed eligible, as public school entities, to keep the money. The attorney general's response follows the release of a two-month investigative news report that numerous Phoenix area for-profit charter schools had refused to disclose administrators' salaries despite being funded with tax dollars.