A reader asked the question:

 

Money for Education Misplaced
If Ohio legislators truly want the best education for all children then why are most public school students from third to tenth graders required to take 17 standardized tests, written by a variety of educational vendors, while private school students take one, the OGT?

Why is the state of Ohio giving tax credit scholarships for some students to attend one of at least 20 private schools that teach creationism and the age of the Earth to be between 6-10,000 years old?

Why are legislators defunding public schools to handover nearly a billion dollars annually to for profit businesses to manage charter schools?

The Columbus Dispatch reported in September 2013 that nearly 84,000 Ohio students, or roughly 87 percent of the state’s charter-school students, attend a charter ranked D or F by the state. For comparison, 75% of public schools were rated C or better. Since 1997, roughly 30% of the charter schools have closed and their median life is 4 years. Furthermore, charter schools now receive $5,745 per student from money that is deducted from the state aid going to the student’s home district.

So the state is taking money out of a system that could use it and spending it in a system in which 87% of their schools are rated poorly and 3 in ten 10 have closed over the last 15 years.

Charter schools also are exempt from hundreds of references in Ohio Revised Code. For example, charter schools do not have to follow the detailed prescribed curriculum like math, science, and reading that are required in public schools nor do they have to annually report the names, salaries, college experience, degrees earned, or type of teaching license held by their staff; hard to believe.
The irony to all of this is lawmakers must feel certain regulations would hurt charter schools, which is why they are exempted, yet legislators have no problem using these laws to regulate public schools and their students.
Ohio does have tough laws to close charter schools but loopholes in the law keeps these failing schools open under a new name and new management. It is time to let charter schools fund themselves and to keep public dollars in public schools.

 

Matt Bistritz
Twinsburg
216-990-3630