“We need to start with not just transparency but quality transparency,” he said. “You need to have a report card that’s actually reflective of what they are doing (in the school). Right now it’s just telling you what student body you have.”

But he agreed that schools that can’t successfully use taxpayer money to educate their students “should be kicked out of the program” and should not have been allowed in to begin with.

Some schools were overpaid

Of the schools that have been terminated from the program, a handful are also on the state Department of Revenue’s delinquent taxpayer list for not repaying overpayments from the state based on enrollment projections that turned out to be too high. In all, those schools owe $253,000.

Recouping money sent to shuttered schools isn’t a feasible option, since the money is gone, Bender and Olsen said.

Bender said the money was used for educating children and not squandered, in most cases.

“The idea that you would go back and get money that was used for education is a misguided perception,” he said.