Florida lawmakers have mounting concerns about the finances of a rural district that recently converted its long-struggling public schools into the state's first all-charter system.

In recent weeks, state House committees have heard multiple perspectives on Somerset Academy in Jefferson County.

Community representatives said the charter network worked to earn their trust. Students said they're happy with a new culinary lab. Somerset officials highlighted the new teacher pay plan, the most generous in the state.

But there are complications. And many of them have to do with the finances of the school district, now staffed with a skeleton crew.

House Education Appropriations Chairman Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, had representatives from Somerset and its management company, Academica, take questions at the end of a committee hearing this week.

They described a tricky transition. They said the charter schools have taken out multi-million-dollar loans while they wait for federal funds. They've poured millions of dollars into capital expenses, from technology upgrades to new buses. And they've overdrawn accounts when the district was slow to hand over state funds.

In the years leading up to the charter takeover, the Jefferson County district hemorrhaged hundreds of students and millions in funding. It went through two rounds of emergency state intervention. Several committee members asked why the district wasn't doing more to help the charter schools manage the transition. (more…)