The State Auditor is supposed to be the independent, disinterested official who guards the public interest. Ohio has what may be the most wasteful, politically influenced, and low-performing charter industry in the nation. And as you will see in the following post by Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity & Adequacy Coalition, no one is protecting the public interest. In a state where hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered on failed charters, law enforcement should be investigating state officials.
“Day 2 (August 12) of Charter School Summit-State Auditor: “We in the charter movement must speak with one voice”
“The clear message from the State Auditor to the charter school audience on August 12 was that the charter industry must speak with one voice to get more funding for operations and facilities. He noted that traditional public school advocates speak with one voice. Since when?
“While interviewing some high performing charter school students, the Auditor orchestrated a line of questioning which left the impression that charter students are courageous pioneers in a movement that is preferred to the traditional public system. Meanwhile, notwithstanding that state officials have failed to maintain a thorough and efficient system of common schools, traditional schools outperform the charter industry.”
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is how the same auditor investigates a public school district:
“Auditors and investigators conducted work based on nine objectives (attached) and reviewed information for the period of July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. Overall, the special audit found a troubling lack of documentation and records, inconsistently followed business rules, and unacceptably high data error rates.
Throughout the course of the investigation, Auditor of State staff conducted interviews with more than 40 principals and assistant principals, more than 230 teachers, the available Regional Executive Directors (REDs), more than 20 secretaries and other office personnel, and 25 current and former employees of the Kingswood Data Center.”
That was 2014 in a public school district. Compare that to the kid glove treatment for Ohio charters.
Come on.
It’s ridiculous how completely captured these people are.
Why are public schools treated so differently from charter schools? Why did the auditor send an army of regulators into a public school district when there were questions but when there are questions on charter schools the state response is to hold a publicly-funded charter marketing event?
https://ohioauditor.gov/news/pressreleases/Details/2003
Good to know the thousands of state employees down there in Columbus are solely focused on charter schools.
93% of the kids in this state attend public schools. Kids of all races and incomes. I’m wondering why none of the “ed reformers” we hire and pay seem at all interested in public schools. It’s pretty bizarre to claim you’re “working to improve public schools” when your sole focus is on expanding charters and vouchers. It’s misleading to the public.
Is this why they were hired? To promote privatization? I don’t think so.
Well, the auditor is elected.
Campaign donations and other financial considerations tend to attract and capture politicians. Plunderbund’s article on Sunday, “Key Officials Doing Business with the ECOT Family of Businesses”.
The worst politician of the lot is Sen. Sherrod Brown, because media, like Politico and Huffpo, have positioned him as a “progressive”. The labeling implies a higher bar for constituent concern. Brown asked the US Dept. Of Ed. to send $ 71 million to Ohio to expand charter schools. As a result, Brown’s a spendthrift with taxpayer money, in addition to sidling up with Republicans in the privatization of the most important common good. The Waltons and Gates are more than willing to continue the lavish spending for privatization. Why spend the public’s money? Brown’s crackerjack education advisors didn’t find charter school fraud in the state until this summer, despite years of newspaper reporting. While Brown is very chummy with the Koch-supported Ohio Republican candidate for Senate, he has yet to endorse the Democratic candidate. I assume it’s easier to hide service to the Waltons and Gates, if Brown doesn’t have to explain away, why he votes against Ohio’s majority, which would be necessary, if the Senate went Democratic.
Here is a paragraph highlighting a longer article in “Inside Higher Ed” (see link below) suggesting the same kinds of denigrating narratives and pressures are being put on higher education and, in this case, history as they are on both K-12 public education and the Adult Education System in the US (National Literacy Association and related organizations).
“U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican in a tight re-election battle, says quality documentaries could replace many instructors, and blames tenured professors for preserving the ‘higher education cartel.'”
It seem pretty pervasive and systematic to me.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/22/gop-senator-save-money-replacing-instructors-ken-burns-videos?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=c87d37d0e6-DNU20160822&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-c87d37d0e6-198488425&mc_cid=c87d37d0e6&mc_eid=f743ca9d07
Check out John Oliver’s take on charter schools:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/22/john-oliver-hysterically-savages-charter-schools-and-charter-supporters-arent-happy/
The video is EXCELLENT!