The blogger Plunderbund here documents the conditions in which certain major charter operators in Ohio become financially very successful.
In this instance, he tells the story of William Lager, founder of ECOT (the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow), who has generously donated $1.3 million to the Ohio Republican Party in the last decade.
His generosity has been amply repaid with generous state funding for his businesses.
Plunderbund writes:
“This weekend we posted about Ohio’s largest charter school, ECOT, being recommended to receive a “bonus” check of $2.9 million that would be quickly rerouted into ECOT owner William Lager’s other private businesses. This is not the first raise that ECOT has received this year. Through the Kasich budget passed this summer, ECOT received the largest increase in state funding for any charter school in Ohio at $4.8 million. This far surpassed the second largest increase of $1.35 million given to Ohio Virtual Academy.
“It’s good to buy friends in high places…
“Since 2004, Lager, the ECOT CEO, has been donating to Ohio political campaigns with staggering regularity and in staggering numbers for someone whose main livelihood is providing a “public” education to Ohio children…”
He supplies the facts and figures.
Let’s put it this way: Mr. Lager’s generosity has been repaid many times over by his benefactors, using tax dollars that were supposed to go to educate Ohio’s students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Kasich is a weasel. I am very disappointed in having this man as governor. He refuses to cooperate with laws for transparency. He makes it sound as if he has accomplished promises, but he hasn’t. JobsOhio is a joke. And he has designs on becoming President. His most famous quotes include, “if you don’t want to get on my bus, I’ll run over you.”. (Paraphrased). He has no respect for local government, schools, police, or fire fighters. He refused to move to the governor’s mansion, so the state paid for protection at his personal home.
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“He refused to move to the governor’s mansion, so the state paid for protection at his personal home.”
He refused to move to the governor’s mansion because certain state records retention and sunshine laws apply to the governor’s mansion.
He doesn’t want anyone to know which lobbyists he meets with there.
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Arne Duncan says that charter schools are “the R and D” departments of public schools. It’s marketing-speak, like everything he says, but still. “R and D” means “research and development”.
Can anyone point me to the specific “R and D” contributions of charter schools over the last decade?
Cheap online ed programs aren’t new, nor are uniforms, standardized tests and strict disciplinary methods. Union-busting and lobbying aren’t new either.
When do we get to the fabulous R and D part of ed privatization that we were promised?
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I thought he meant Rethuglican and Dimocrap!!
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“Arne Duncan says that charter schools are “the R and D” departments of public schools.”
Yes, where R and D stand for Republican and Democrat.
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That quote would only have merit if all charter schools were non-profit and only employed qualified teachers. For starters.
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It doesn’t have merit anyway you parse it. The idea that some students should go to schools that shut down after a year or two in the name of “research” is just wrong. Just more evidence that the reformers consider some children disposable.
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Ann, I am equally disgusted with all the broken promises of charters and thus I oppose bringing them to my home state of Kentucky. I just like to look at the sliver of any possible positive — the original promise of charters to deliver on the idea of coming up with better ways to teach children. Under particular circumstances, I do wonder if this is doable.
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Smart Money (absorbed into MarketWatch) had an article in 2010 called “10 Things Charter Schools Won’t Tell You”, which has since apparently disappeared.
Has anyone written a similar article since then? I’d love to see an article like this by Diane or Anthony Cody, or whoever else is qualified to write it.
I live in Kentucky, and there is currently talk of another push for charter schools legislation in the January session of our General Assembly. I’m not sure if problems in neighboring Ohio are enough to convince citizens and legislators of the folly of charter schools.
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At the bottom of this site is a listing of various categories. Click on the Charter Schools one and you could probably compile a fairly complete list rather easily.
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Thanks. I’m aware of that. I may have to end up doing that. However, I would much prefer an noted expert (and better at writing articles) tackles it so it will have much more weight.
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This is worth a look, of course. Corruption should be rooted out no matter where it comes from. And I can’t stand how our system of political contributions works.
But please note the political contributions of teacher unions (much higher than 1.9 million) for politicians who want to increase education spending–and teacher salaries.
“But that’s different because…”
It’s always different when you’re the one benefiting. Maybe teachers should be paid more and education spending should be higher…but should the people benefiting monetarily from that increase be allowed to fund the campaigns?
Standing in the middle, seems to me that both sides should be taken out of the game and that politicians should be making decisions based on what’s best for kids. But we all know that’s a dream.
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Matt, politicians don’t know what’s best for kids other than their own. I trust teachers to know, that is their profession.
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http://www.ohea.org/charter-school-abuses
This is from the Ohio Education Association.
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