A reader from Ohio sent a list of the 50 districts in Ohio that have sent a bill to the state for the revenue diverted from their schools’ budgets to support charter schools, many of which perform far worse than the public schools. Public school boards typically oppose privatization. Bill Phillis, a retired educator, leads the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy and encourages local districts to stand up against the charter school raids on their budgets. He reports each time a school board sends an invoice to the state for funds lost to charters.
CONGRATULATIONS to Bill Phillis and the 50 public school districts that have adopted resolutions to bill the state for charter school deductions!
1. Woodridge (Summit County)
2. Logan-Hocking (Hocking County)
3. Troy (Miami County)
4. Elyria (Lorain County)
5. Parma (Cuyahoga County)
6. West Clermont (Clermont County)
7. Cardinal (Geauga County)
8. Keystone (Lorain County)
9. Northmont (Montgomery County)
10. Jackson (Stark County)
11. Streetsboro (Portage County)
12. Firelands (Lorain County)
13. Lake Local (Wood County)
14. Bowling Green (Wood County)
15. Belpre (Washington County)
16. LaBrae (Trumbull County)
17. Southington (Trumbull County)
18. Beaver Local (Columbiana County)
19. Northridge (Montgomery County)
20. Claymont (Tuscarawas County)
21. Southern Local (Perry County)
22. Indian Creek (Jefferson County)
23. Green Local (Summit County)
24. Garaway Local (Tuscarawas County)
25. Xenia (Greene County)
26. Noble Local Schools (Noble County)
27. Adena Local Schools (Ross County)
28. Gallipolis (Gallia County)
29. Oak Hills (Jackson County)
30. Monroe Local (Butler County)
31. Liberty Union -Thurston Local Schools (Fairfield County)
32. Tuscarawas Valley Schools (Tuscarawas County)
33. Amherst Schools (Lorain County)
34. Huron City Schools (Erie County)
35. Fairborn City Schools (Greene County)
36. Champion Local Schools (Trumbull County)
37. Washington Local Schools (Lucas County)
38. Euclid City Schools (Cuyahoga County)
39. Sheffield-Sheffield Lake City Schools (Lorain County)
40. Dayton City Schools (Montgomery County)
41. Bristol Local Schools (Trumbull County)
42. North Ridgeville Local Schools (Lorain County)
43. Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools (Cuyahoga County)
44. Fairbanks Local Schools (Union County)
45. Plain Local Schools (Stark County)
46. Wellston City Schools (Jackson County)
47. Vandalia Butler City Schools (Montgomery County)
48. Twinsburg City Schools (Summit County)
49. Morgan Local Schools (Morgan County)
50. Vinton County School District
Bill Phillis posted just a few days ago about Vinton County joining the list.
He writes:
Vinton County Local School District added to the list of districts that have invoiced the state for charter school deductions.
Ohio charters began to operate, with tax money in tow, in 1999 amid great fanfare and the promise of setting the pace for educational excellence. Promoters promised that via innovation, creativity and competition, charters would spur improvements in the traditional public school system.
The stark contrast between promise and product has smudged the charter brand beyond repair. This $7 billion boondoggle of broken promises, low performance, nepotism, fiscal fraud and corruption is being propped up by deceptive marketing, clever lobbyists and lucrative campaign contributions; but the industry cannot survive because the reality of it is being exposed.
Boards of education, school administrators and teacher leaders are drawing a line in the sand. The public common school community from the Lake to the River, from Dayton City to Vinton County Local is pushing back. The tactic of invoicing the state for charter deductions is just one example of the growing resistance to the failed charter experiment.
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
Join Our Mailing List!
Ohio E & A
100 S. 3rd Street
Columbus OH 43215
or email Bill here:
ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Will these school districts take the state to court when the state does not pay those bills?
This is an explanation of the charter school funding mess in Ohio:
“Columbus residents in 2013 overwhelming rejected a levy that would have shared local property-tax dollars with charter schools, but data show that the sharing is essentially happening anyway.
When a student living in the Columbus district attends a charter school, the state subtracts nearly $7,800 on average from the district’s state funding. But the state is giving Columbus only an average of about $3,900 in basic aid per pupil.
Columbus needs nearly $69 million in local property-tax money — the equivalent of 7.6 mills — to offset the loss of state funding to charter schools, the highest total in the state. Once charter-school money is subtracted, the district gets just $2,604 for each student who is left, a $1,312 loss that is also, by far, the highest in the state.”
The state gives these public school students only 3900 in state funding, but they subtract 7800 for each charter student. Lawmakers must know this- the arithmetic is not complicated.
The state established a charter school system and then didn’t fund it. This really harms public school students. That’s why the superintendents are finally rebelling.
It’s also deceptive as far as the public. They are funding charters locally thru a back door method while insisting the state is funding them. That’s not true. The state isn’t funding what they cost.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/09/09/ohios-charter-schools-essentially-get-local-property-tax-money.html
Every single one of those public schools is in the district of one or another state lawmaker. They should have to explain why they are short-changing the schools in their districts, especially because many Ohio public schools out-perform charters. They are pulling money away from stronger public schools to fund charters.
It makes no sense, yet it continues and has continued for years.
Deception? The explanation above completely ignores local funding. ALL reputable explanations about school funding includes LOCAL as well as State funding. To NOT do so is completely deceptive. The facts are that district students get funded, on average, $3,000 MORE than charter students. A child – and these are CHILDREN – is funded on average, $10,000 at an Ohio district and $7,000 at a charter. As much as you want to lie about it doesn’t make it true. But the people that read this blog are not interested in what is fair and good for students. They fail to recognize that kids need options. They fail to recognize that there are a large number of charters that do indeed outperform the district schools – even for ECOT – there are 400 Ohio district schools that perform worse. They fail to recognize the 30 Ohio charter schools that serve kids with Autism & Aspergers (which the charter haters call “low performing” schools) or the 80 that serve kids that have previously dropped out. This political theater by school districts completely smacks the face of parents and kids who needed options. The money for these kids’ education does NOT belong to the school district. Do you know why they chose a charter? A better education? To escape bullying? Because they have a medical issue and can’t attend a traditional school? None of that matters in the politics of this. The districts were provided money to educate all kids that reside in the district, but some kids don’t wind up educated in the district – they go to open enrollment, they go to career tech, they take classes at college – and the money follows them. The district doesn’t get to keep money that was for students they don’t serve. The difference in state money that follows the kid IS MADE UP by the local money that doesn’t (which is also paid by charter parents, by the way). The charter isn’t getting any more than they should and the district isn’t losing more than they should – there is no “short changing” – no district kid gets less. What makes no sense is that publically paid people – Sups and Treasurers – have been misleading the public about this – and the people buy it because they trust these people and have not been told the truth about how school funding works. Being hoodwinked should make you angry.
You miss a crucial point, RFK. There shouldn’t be any publicly funded, for profit (anyway you look at it), autocratic, opaque, often fraudulent, often worse or the same as the public schools they are replacing, corporate and/or private sector charter schools in the first place.
As an Ohio taxpayer, I hope the community public schools receive more funding. They’re educating students (KnowYourCharter.com).
They’re not indoctrinating them for the CIA. They’re not modeling greed and law breaking. And, they’re practicing democracy and meritocracy, two fundamental principles of the nation.
And what about the $71 million federal charter school grant given to Ohio when Ohio had nearly 10 times as many failing charter schools as claimed by the charter school industry applicant.
At the time of that grant, the Ohio Department of Education said there are 57 poor-performing charter schools in Ohio, not the six reported in its grant application submitted to federal officials in July 2015.
As for high-performing charter schools, it turns out there were 59, not the 93 originally claimed.
So, who is misleading whom?
I think that the charter school industry is desperate to shore up a reputation severely damaged by greed, incompetence, and playing this game of not getting proper funding, when in fact money is pouring into the industry from private foundations and from the federal government, including support for building facilities.
The matter of funding for Ohio schools has been declared unconstitutional many times and it remains a total mess now. The “entitlement” claims of the charter school industry have caused these Superintendents to say “enough is enough.”
Beavercreek City Schools, located in Greene County, is the FIFTY- FIRST Ohio district to pass a resolution to invoice the state of Ohio for past charter school deductions.
Its resolution states that “the Charter School Industry, with the assistance of ODE and others, has taken the sum of $12,847,603 from the school district, its students, and taxpayers since 2006.”
It will take the continued efforts of ALL of us to push back against those who put profits before kids!
Law suits set precedence — and one day this will hit the Supreme Court. We will all have to be grateful for these grassroots efforts.