The press in Ohio has noticed that charters are not a solution to the problems of urban education. There have been so many scandals that it is impossible to pretend that they are. The wonder is not that journalists have noticed but that the press in other states–and the mainstream media in New York City, Los Angeles, and D.C. has not noticed at all.
The Akron Beacon Journal wrote editorial about the latest charter scandal, once again in a virtual charter school, which is a synonym for scamming the taxpayer.
The editorial says:
When the Ohio Department of Education examined the attendance records of the Akron Digital Academy, officials found the online charter school could not back its claims. The school reported enrolling about 400 students, but it lacked the documentation to show that those students spent five hours per day on class work. Even the five hours appear inadequate, the annual total falling short of the minimum 920 hours required.
That enrollment number of 400 translates into $3 million in state money for Akron Digital. And if fewer students actually attend, let alone participate in instruction? Traditional public schools are harmed, funds that otherwise would go their way diverted to charter schools.
The most disturbing thing is, this may be part of a pattern. Consider what the state education department discovered at the Provost Academy, an online charter school in Columbus. The school received $1 million from the state for educating 162 students. When the department looked, it found just 35 full-time students. That calculated to an overpayment of $800,000 in state money.
Provost Academy must make a reimbursement. Then, factor into the equation that 39,000 students attend online charter schools in Ohio, the state putting up roughly $275 million a year. How much of that sum has been obtained through false claims?
Joe Schiavoni, the Ohio Senate minority leader and a Boardman Democrat, has responded to these revelations, first reported in the Columbus Dispatch, with proposed legislation that would move to ensure the necessary oversight and accountability. The Republican legislative majorities would do well to give the legislation the high priority it deserves.
Among other things, the measure would require online schools to keep an accurate tally of the hours each student engages in coursework. That information would be reported monthly to the state and made available to the public. Student participation logs would be checked monthly by a qualified teacher. Online school sponsors would be required to inform the state when a school failed to comply. A commission would be established to assess what it costs to operate an online charter school.
An Ohioan might ask: Didn’t state lawmakers recently enact wide-ranging improvements to the governance of charter schools? They did. It is an indicator of how Republicans at the Statehouse long neglected proper oversight of charter schools that much repair work remains.
The online charter school contingent soon pushed back. Its lobbyists have argued that to qualify for state money, the schools should be required merely to provide a computer and offer the minimum hours of instruction. Put another way, they propose to avoid accountability for whether students actually participate in learning during those hours.
What temerity, especially for schools that rank among the worst performers in the state.
That stance reinforces the need for lawmakers to enact the Schiavoni legislation. Tom Gunlock, the president of the State Board of Education, told the Dispatch in the wake of the reporting on the Provost Academy that missing a handful of students would be a mistake. To the extent of Provost? “This is criminal,” he said.
So funny that you and Akron Beacon Journal fail to note that Akron Digital Academy is sponsored by Akron City School District. Does the School District escape any responsibility for failing to do its job? Or are they just happy collecting the sponsor fees?
Good point, RFK. Digital schools are a scam, no matter who runs them.
RFK
I vote and pay taxes in Ohio.
Let democracy work. Ask the voters if they want their tax dollars to go to on-line schools.
Ohio politicians don’t represent us. They work for people scamming education for profit and/or double dealing.
Sounds almost like Trump University.
What ever happened to widows, children and orphans being off-limits?
The biggest scandal in Ohio isn’t the charter/voucher sector. It’s the complete abandonment of the public schools that 93% of children attend due to the capture of our government by the “ed reform movement”.
That’s where the real long-term damage will show up- not in abuse of the charter laws but in the neglect of the existing public system.
It’s pretty amazing it’s come to this- we can’t get a group of state employees to focus any attention on public schools. It’s all charters/vouchers all the time.
Someone should tell them to drag their attention away from privatization schemes and do the job the public is paying them to do, which is manage and improve existing public schools- no matter how unfashionable they feel the public system is or whether that duty conflicts with their ideological goals. They did know that was the job when they accepted it, right? Public schools? The schools 93% of their constituents attend?
Can the ed reform “movement” point to any improvements they’re accomplished for PUBLIC schools in this state?
That’s how this was sold to voters- not as a privatization scheme but as improvements to existing systems. Anyone? Can I see a list of those improvements after tens of millions of dollars and nearly 2 decades? Do they feel they misled voters in this state?
If they wanted to privatize maybe they should start running on that instead of this nonsense about “great schools!” that never seems to pay dividends to kids in public schools. That would be the right thing to do
Big losers in Chicago “choice” system? The public schools who serve as the “safety net” for the choice system.
The Best and the Brightest in ed reform really didn’t take system effects into account? Wow. That was reckless.
“These schools face a set of woes that make a turnaround all but impossible. A citywide school-choice system leaves these mostly open-enrollment schools with some of Chicago’s most challenging and low-achieving students. Deeply strained budgets fueled by declining enrollment hurt staffing levels, teacher retention, and programming. Mix in a stubborn reputation for violence at many schools—unwarranted in the case of Austin and some others—and these schools are in a death spiral.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/04/reviving-a-hollowed-out-high-school/477354/
Re: Chiara’s comment, “Complete abandonment of public schools”. Sherrod Brown is one of my greatest disillusionments. He is an, education DINO/ neoliberal. In a reply from his office this week, he doesn’t even dance abound support for public schools. His blather is about a “strong defense to repayment regulations”, for charter schools, which is analogous to opening the village gates to the Huns and then, asking for a pittance from the booty, to be returned to villagers.
Brown and Portman are political leaders in the corporate colonizing of the American people.
A rally, Democracy Awakening, will be held in D.C. in April. There’s a website.
Who decided that 5 hours was the required number of hours per school day?