A 13 Year Experiment

 15 charter schools opened in Today, more than 300 charter schools are in operation and will receive more than half a billion dollars in state funds this year.  More than 113,000 students attended a charter school in : That’s about one out of every 15 public school students.

Dayton 27% Youngstown 24% Cleveland 23% Toledo 23% (The report didn’t look at students enrolled in online- only charter schools. )

Legislative Timeline

 Sponsors are nonprofit organizations or other groups (like school districts) in charge of making sure charter schools do what they should – educate kids, follow the laws and not waste taxpayer dollars.  Not all sponsors have done a good job in their role as a sponsor. (ODE is an example)

 White Hat Management is one of Ohio’s largest for-profit charter school operators  In the fall of 2011, it operated 46 schools in six states  White Hat is based in Akron and is owned by former manufacturing company CEO David Brennan.

 Played a major role in shaping Ohio education policy.  He and his family members have donated millions to state legislators and governors over the past decade.  White Hat lobbyists have played significant roles in shaping Ohio’s charter school policies.

White Hat collects at least 95 percent of the schools’ tax funding. White Hat handles the day-to-day operations of its schools: hiring teachers, ordering school supplies, etc. It also owns everything from computers to student files. The governing authorities of the schools involved in the lawsuit would like to gain access to the materials and equipment and to decide if they want White Hat to continue to operate their schools. For the school year, no Ohio White Hat school earned higher than the equivalent of a “C” on its state report card. Most were rated “D” or “F.”

In 2011, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge John Bender found that since White Hat runs its charters on public funds, the company essentially takes on the role of a public official, and is therefore accountable to the public and the school boards. Bender ordered White Hat to open its books. In a decision March 15, 2013, the Franklin County Court of Appeals reaffirmed an earlier ruling demanding that White Hat Management disclose its financial records.

“Taking Advantage of Children to get Rich”

This year’s crop of 28 schools is down from 39 new charter schools opening in Last year, state lawmakers raised caps on how many charter schools could operate in Ohio, expanded the number of districts where charter schools can open, and allowed the Ohio Department of Education to try again to sponsor charter schools. They limited charter school sponsors with too many low-performing charter schools from sponsoring additional schools.

Three new “blended learning” schools operated by for-profit company Connections Education.“blended learning” A Toledo school operated by charter school management company Imagine Schools (which operates 17 Ohio schools). A Cleveland dropout recovery school operated by Akron-based White Hat Management.White Hat Management Two Cleveland schools that are part of the Breakthrough charter school network; andBreakthrough Two charter schools sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education’s sponsorship department.Ohio Department of Education’s sponsorship department Not on the list: Two new White Hat-operated charter schools that the Ohio Department of Education’s sponsorship department had planned to sponsor. Those schools didn’t get off the ground this year, but are slated to open next yearnew White Hat-operated charter schools In addition to overseeing two new charter schools, the Ohio Department of Education’s sponsorship department will also oversee several existing charter schools, including the Richard Allen Academies. The Richard Allen schools are a Dayton-based group of charter schools the state auditor says are plagued by mismanagement.Richard Allen Academiesplagued by mismanagement

The new system would set the bar to earn an A — and other grades — higher. It would: Slash the number of A-rated districts from nearly 400 to just 22. Increase the number of B and C rated districts by 50%. Roughly double the number of D and F rated districts.

 “The first thing we need to do is be steadfast in our decision to hold the bar high and to be clear and transparent about sharing the brutal facts with the field,” [Ohio Department of Education associate superintendent Tina Thomas- Manning said]. “From there, we need to support districts and schools and teachers and parents and children.”

 “It is entirely possible that you will have these urban charter schools making great gains with kids, accomplishing more than a year’s worth of work in a year’s time. But they can never achieve an A grade.”  Charter advocates have started lobbying state officials to reconsider either the new evaluations or the closure law.

 “(ODE) is perfectly willing to work with the charter schools and look at the legislation and if there’s particulars that need to be adjusted to be accommodating to this new system.”  The charter school closure law exists “because the general assembly and folks believe they need to be there, that’s not going to go away. But we also don’t want to make it such that charter schools are just dropping into a closure situation because of some artifacts of other parts of the law. That’s not our intent.” Matt Cohen (ODE)  Both the federal government and the state legislature have yet to sign off on the proposed new school grading system.  Even if the new guidelines are approved, the prospect of hundreds of charters shutting down all at once is highly unlikely. Matt Cohen (ODE)

 “Nationally, people who advocate for and support charter schools view Ohio as a state that has a lot of problems that need to be cleaned up” (Greg Richmond, National Association of Charter School Authorizers).  “There are good charter schools in Ohio, many good charters, but there are also too many bad schools and the frustration has been that over the years the state as a whole has not been able to take strong enough action yet to clean up the bad schools in Ohio.”  Ohio has one of the strictest laws when it comes to shutting charter schools down, but little accountability before things get that bad.  120 charter schools in Ohio have collapsed over the last 13 years. They owe the state millions of dollars in audit findings.  Recently, ODE banned 9 charter school sponsors from adding more charter schools because of the rotten academic performance of the schools they already have.  Charter school advocates say all of that is evidence that they are accountable in ways they need to be.