This is a comment by Billl Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition:
Follow the money-yes, tax money
Tax funds have likely made White Hat Charter school operator David Brennan and ECOT operator Bill Lager very, very rich. (Some out-of-state charter operators are also cashing in on Ohio’s Wild, Wild West charter industry.)
The charters, that these fine, civic-minded gentlemen operate, generally speaking, perform at a pathetically low level.
Brennan’s total take on tax funds for charters since the beginning is in the range of $1 billion. Lager has not been in the business as long but is within reach of $1 billion total. This is money extracted from school districts thus, harming school district students. This enormous financial drain from school districts would be more tolerable if their schools were outperforming school districts.
With their respective stables of lobbyists and their multimillions in campaign contributions, they leverage legislation which expands their charter school empires and profits.
Although they contribute a lot to political campaigns, these donations constitute a small percentage of their cost of doing business.
Plunderbund, in a July 7, 2015 issue, posted the donations that Brennan and Lager made to certain House and Senate leaders.
Speaker of the House Cliff Rosenberger:
$12,155.52 from David Brennan in 2014
$24,311.04 from Bill Lager in 2013-14
Speaker Pro Tempore Ron Amstutz:
$67,500 from David Brennan (and his wife, Ann) between 1998-2012
$30,000 from Bill Lager in 2010-12
Majority Floor Leader Barbara Sears:
$10,000 from David Brennan in 2012
$40,000 from Bill Lager in 2010-13
Assistant Majority Floor Leader Jim Buchy:
$31,543.70 from Bill Lager in 2012-13
Senate President Keith Faber
$32,156 from the Brennan’s in 2012-14
$25,500 from Bill Lager in 2010-13
This pay-to-play scenario probably explains why House leadership derailed HB 2 with Senate amendments. This derailed legislation has a modicum of charter reform, some of which would likely affect the bottom line of Brennan and Lager.
Why are Ohioans not outraged about these shenanigans? Probably because they don’t know about them. Inform your fellow Ohioans.
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I live in the Cincinnati area, and I always joke that one is LESS informed after reading the local paper — the Enquirer never reports this sort of thing. I have to depend on the internet, sites like this one, and also the Plunderbund site.
A related problem is that Ohio is very gerrymandered. For one small example, Cincinnati used to send Democrats to Congress, then the city was split into two different districts. Each half is attached to a very large rural area that reliably votes Republican; that is why a few years ago, I had the embarrassment of being represented by “Mean Jean” Schmidt (her replacement isn’t any better, just less colorful).
My immediate neighborhood actually sent a Democrat to the Ohio House of Representatives, and when that happened, the next thing you knew, our district was redrawn.
You are right – the Enquirer’s reporting of Ed matters is truly lacking. Join us on Facebook in Ohio BATS. We are teachers & parents fighting in Ohio for public Ed. Greg Mild (who reports all the Ed stories in Plunderbund) is a BAT.
Worse, on Tuesday, at an ODE Board meeting, it was disclosed that Dan Hansen, hand picked by Governor Kasich, intentionally and illegally withheld data from failing online Charter schools because he knew it would make Charter schools look bad. Guess who Hansen’s wife is?? Kasich’s campaign manager for the ’16 presidential race. Follow the $$….http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/state_didnt_follow_the_law_in.html
The bright spot? A House Dem (Theresa Fedor) is calling for the resignations of Hansen and the State Super (also hand picked by Kasich). http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/resignation-of-ohio-school-superintendent-richard-ross-sought-by-state-lawmaker-1.608769 We’ll see what happens.
Thank you to Bill Phillis for his vigilance and reporting of education matters over the years. He is a true friend of public Ed in Ohio!!
Like Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people most of the time and most of the people some of the time, and with the traditional media on the side of corporate Charters, that fooling will go on for some time until most Ohioans wake up and refuse to be fooled any longer, but by then it may be too late. The public schools in Ohio could be history and gone forever as that state joins the growing lists of states competing for the title of education gulag of the U.S. I’m thinking of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin with Scott Walker (Image what the U.S. would be like with him as President), Florida, and North Carolina. This list is probably longer but its early and in the morning..
I’d like to see a similar list of charter school operators and investors who have donated to our U.S. congressional members who just passed HR 5 and S.1177, “The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015,” which is a giant giveaway to charter school entrepreneurs.
I am sure that there is a list of donors that has to be made public, if requested. We need a data base that links donors to “reform” politicians that is posted on social media.
“Despite what some lawmakers suggest, there’s no mystery about what needs to be done to make charter schools more accountable and responsibly managed. The General Assembly has had the opportunity to do so for years.
Instead, lawmakers have redirected more money to charter schools, just as it’s become clear that charters perform no better than traditional schools overall, and that they misspend taxpayer money at a higher rate than any other sector.
In the past year, charter schools in northwest Ohio and throughout the state have been accused of falsifying attendance records and spending exorbitant sums on marketing. Online schools are some of the worst culprits, yet lawmakers handed them disproportionately more funding in the new two-year budget.”
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Featured-Editorial-Home/2015/07/10/No-time-for-recess.html#IvuwRwIyygaFFdEE.99
I also think it’s fair to ask the Ohio Department of Education and Ohio lawmakers to tear themselves away from their single-minded focus on “schools of choice” and start devoting some time and energy to the 90% of Ohio students who attend the unfashionable public sector schools.
They should do their jobs, whether they’re supporters of public schools or not. I don’t really care if they’re supporters or not.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Plunderbund reports the husband of Kasich’s Chief of Staff, resigned after he and his boss, the State Superintendent were grilled last week, about scrubbed data. Hansen was the fox hired to guard the charter school henhouse.
The interrogation by State Board members, reportedly pointed out that the actions constituted a violation of state law.
Plunderbund referenced an earlier report (2009-Buckeye Institute) of record “fixing”.