Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition reports another charter school collapses and wonders why it was ever allowed to open. And he asks, “where’s the money?”
“The FCI Academy charter school in north Columbus closed at the start of this school year
“The closure of FCI Academy sent 300 students scrambling to enroll in another school on the first day of school. The sponsor revoked the contract due to lack of appropriate fiscal management.
“This is a school that should never have been allowed to open. As pointed out in a post a year ago, Section 3314.03 (A)(11)(C) of the Ohio Revised Code states, “The school will be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and will not be operated by a sectarian school or religious institution.”
“FCI Academy charter school was on the campus of Living Faith Apostolic Church in Columbus. It was founded by the church leader, his wife and one other person. The church leader’s wife was president of the school board.
“It should be noted that FCI Academy had already received nearly $400,000 thus far this school year. What will happen to that money?
“This arrangement does not pass the smell test. But, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the sponsor, Lake Erie West ESC, apparently had not sniffed out the nonsectarian prohibition. It appears that ODE has seldom, if ever, used its leadership role to correct abuses in the charter industry.”
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Perhaps some are waking up.
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Oh, we all know what happened to the money! The real question is: How was this misappropriation of taxpayer money allowed to happen? Will anyone be forced to make restitution?
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There are so many to thank for this situation.
There are Fordham, Students First Ohio, the Ohio Alliance of Charter Schools and Hansen’s Buckeye Institute.
All of whom, appear to have the juice to expand the privatization of public schools but, lack the wherewithal to stop the industry’s fleecing of Ohio taxpayers.
Then, there are the national foundations to thank, Joyce, Gates, Waltons, Broad,
Arnold…..
And, at the bottom, feeding, are the politicians and their appointees.
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“Lake Erie West ESC”
Does anyone have a name at “Lake Erie West ESC”? Who runs it? Why works there? What are they paid? What are their duties?
If there’s an issue with a public school we get the superintendent’s name and usually a quote or some kind of defense or explanation. With an Ohio charter school all we get is a tossed-off reference to these “sponsors” and that’s where it ends.
I’m told over and over these are public schools instead of publicly-funded private schools. In what sense are they public?
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They are not public. I have concluded that that has become a ruse to market the charter industry and to collect money from taxpayers.
Ohio is lucky to have William Phillis tracking this corruption. Thank you. Thank you.
Next step.
Keep the heat on.
The USDE has had two Inspector General Reports on the absence of accountability for your money shoved into the industry. The person in charge refered freedom of information requests to the main obby for the industry -the National Charter School Authorzing Association (approximate name).
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Where is the money? Where it always is, in the hands of the people pushing for these monstrosities, whose bottom line is money, not people.
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What about the stranded students? Shouldn’t they have the right to a stable educational program?
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retired teacher:
What you said.
😡
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It’s obvious, the alleged 300 displaced students should be accommodated, immediately, by the schools sponsored by Fordham, without payment. Fordham is perpetually quoted in the media, extolling the virtues of school choice. I choose Fordham to manage this crisis, without delay and, to do it without tax dollars, b/c the money’s gone and they, as advocates of accountability, are obliged to pick up the slack.
We can be assured, it will have no adverse impact on the academic performance of their exemplary schools because the ed. industry has taught us that situational factors, beyond an institution’s control, are inconsequential to success.
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What was that about the benefits of “disruption” in education again?
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