The former CEO of Tindley has come clean about defrauding the popular charter school network of nearly $1 million. This doesn’t come as a surprise to people who have been following the case. The only thing truly surprising about someone stealing money from a charter school is that it doesn’t happen more often.

People reading the headline will be quick to point out the massive public school fraud scandals—of which there are many. And I am not saying such things don’t happen in traditional public schools, because nothing could be further from the truth. What I am saying is that the ease with which these things can happen at a charter school is problematic.

The former CEO in question, Brian Metcalf, working with another individual, orchestrated a scheme to submit fraudulent invoices to the Tindley school network for services that were never provided. To make the invoices appear legitimate, Metcalf copied the format and language of real invoices from a company the school had previously considered hiring but never did. He also used a fake address on some invoices to avoid suspicion. In addition, they submitted around $400,000 in fraudulent invoices for student instruction programs that did not exist.

I worked at a charter school for over a decade and frequently handled financial matters. It definitely occurred to me how easy it would be to pocket money or submit fraudulent invoices compared to other places I have worked. Most of the time, Metcalf had nobody to fool. Lack of oversight is a huge risk factor in fraud. Yes, there is a board, but board members are rarely on the ground and usually have no insight into day-to-day operations.

We are currently debating potential laws to dramatically increase the public funds charter schools receive. If and when that happens, oversight needs to increase too.