The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is one of the most profitable charter schools in the nation. Its owner, William Lager, is one of the biggest donors to the Republican party in Ohio. ECOT offers K-12 instruction online and is paid full state tuition for every student. Most of this money is deducted from the funding of the local school district where each student lives. ECOT has the lowest graduation rate in the nation. According to the New York Times, in the 2014 fiscal year, the last year for which federal tax filings were available, the school paid the companies associated with Mr. Lager nearly $23 million, or about one-fifth of the nearly $115 million in government funds it took in.
The state recently asked ECOT to demonstrate that its students are actually logging on and participating in instruction. The issue is in court because ECOT says that the state is overstepping its bounds and the company has no obligation to demonstrate that its students participate even for a minute a day.
The state’s fight over whether the giant ECOT online school deserves the $106 million in state money it receives hit the courtroom today, with ECOT lawyers saying the state is using rules that are “unenforceable” and the state saying the school’s objections are “absurd.”
The school and Ohio Department of Education are expected to be before Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer French for the next three days to present their differing views on a crucial issue: Whether online schools have to show that students actually participate in their online classes, or just that the schools provide classes.
In opening arguments this morning, lawyer Marion Little said state rules and a 2003 contract with ODE only require the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow to prove that students are enrolled, not that they are engaged in their lessons.
Little said that e-school funding is set by enrollment but the state this year has tried to “merge” the “distinct” and separate ideas of participation with enrollment to audit the school and put its funding at risk.
The original idea of charter schools, as espoused not by Albert Shanker but by people like Chester Finn Jr., was a deal: Autonomy in exchange for accountability.
ECOT offers a different deal: Autonomy without accountability. Just give us the money and trust us.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Lager, a pig at the trough:
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All apologizes to the Porcine family for comparing that scum homo supposedly sapien named Lager to them.
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We need people in office who will challenge the unaccountable charter school agenda. While there are charters in Ohio that do great work, schools like ECOT (and many others) are defrauding tax payers. It’s amazing to me that our state leadership in Ohio is looking away from the obvious. We need folks in office who will contest this craziness. For me, I have not heard a single sound argument articulating a position that understand why public schools must be protected – except Ted Strickland. Ohioans, please read about his position! http://www.tedstrickland.com/pdfs/SFSEducation.pdf.
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In 2002, when the Ohio Deptartment of Education (ODE) recommended more oversight language for a bill regulating online charter schools, GOP leaders declined to add it to the bill.
ECOT owner, Bill Lager, said, “The bottom line is why would we agree to rules if we don’t have to have rules?”
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/08/14/1-struggle-with-ecot-nothing-new.html
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In Georgia, FTE day is just around the corner. As a school principal, I not only have to prove enrollment but I have to prove attendance. Students who do not attend school are not eligible to be counted for funding. It’s a simple concept, really. I’m completely baffled why the ECOT people would have a problem with that. Wasn’t one of the core foundations of this whole so-called school reform movement based on the myth of rampant mismanagement of traditional public schools? Wouldn’t it be prudent for a manager to make sure his students were in class?
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A friend of mine’s son is in an online HS program and she is fuming. He is allowed to take only 2 classes per semester, that’s the minimum, so that is exactly what he is doing. She figures at this rate he might get out of HS by the time he is 20! He does have problems with school but what happened to alternative placement schools?
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