Some Ohio charter schools, in Toledo and elsewhere, prepare students very well to attend college and pursue fulfilling careers. But too many charters have hidden behind the state’s lax charter school transparency laws to deliver mediocre education and engage in abuses.

Such problems have become too egregious to ignore. Last year, an unannounced audit of 30 charter schools by Ohio Auditor David Yost found that many schools were significantly overreporting their attendance numbers. White Hat Management, one of the largest charter school operators in the state, last year refused to disclose financial records, claiming that the information was private.

Click here to read more Blade editorials

Lawmakers on the left and right increasingly agree on the need to overhaul the state’s inadequate charter school laws. The state House approved a bill Thursday that its sponsors promise will bring charter schools into line.

Many advocates of charter school reform say the House bill doesn’t go far enough. The Republican-sponsored bill includes some major improvements: It would prohibit charter school sponsors from selling services to their schools, require schools to make information available about their board members, and eliminate some conflicts of interest.

But the bill doesn’t include other, more significant measures advocated by Mr. Yost, a Republican. He would require charter schools to use the same accounting method as traditional schools, and require charter operators to be more transparent about how they spend taxpayer dollars. Mr. Yost has called Ohio’s current oversight of charter schools a “broken system of governance.”

Lawmakers removed a provision from the House bill that would have required failing charter schools to get permission from the Ohio Department of Education before switching sponsors, a practice known as “sponsor-hopping.” The measure now merely requires state approval in the first four years of a school’s operation, or if it has changed sponsors in the past five years.

Many state lawmakers, especially Republicans, have accepted campaign donations from charter school operators, who benefit from weak disclosure rules. The Senate is expected to consider a more-substantive bill next month.

Senators should incorporate Mr. Yost’s common-sense recommendations. Taxpayers are entitled to know how their money is spent on essential services such as education, whether the recipient organization is public or private.

Gov. John Kasich’s proposed state budget calls for nearly $1 billion in funding for charter schools in each of the next two years. Before elected officials divert more money from traditional public schools to ramp up subsidies for underperforming charters, they should ensure that both kinds of schools get the same amount of scrutiny from state government.

Charter school operators say they inject competition into the public school system, offering parents better choices for their children’s education. Yet charters can’t compete fully with traditional schools as long as they are allowed to play by a different set of rules.

Lawmakers must act quickly to respond to charter school scandals and at last pass a tough, comprehensive reform law. Such reform is years overdue.

First Published March 27, 2015, 4:00 a.m.