Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Adequacy and Equity reports the latest on the continuing struggle to make the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) accountable:
WOW…Ohio Department of Education (ODE) says ECOT owes $60 million for collecting money in the 2015-2016 school year for students not being educated; but the Chairman of the House Education Committee says “a ‘safe harbor’ provision could be added to Senate Bill 3”
A December 5 Dispatch article indicates the legislature will not likely deal with the ECOT $60 million overcharge during the lame duck session; however, the Chairman of the House Education Committee seems to want a “safe harbor” for ECOT and other online charters.
ECOT has drained in the range of a billion dollars from school districts since 2000. The 2015-2016 discrepancy is $60 million (60% of the total). If the 60% ratio is applied to all previous years, the amount of school district funds collected by ECOT for students not being educated would be in excess of an astronomical half billion dollars.
It is time for Ohio citizens to take control of chartering.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Rep. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, chairman of the House Education Committee, said a number of e-schools want protection from penalties.
A “safe harbor” provision could be added to Senate Bill 3, which is expected to become an education “Christmas tree” bill — that is, one decorated with several amendments — before it is passed this week. But both Brenner and Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, said they do not expect to add proposals that have not already been heard in committee as separate bills.”
I don’t think it matters much to the 93% of Ohio students who attend public schools. That money is gone. It will never be reimbursed. It’ll stay in litigation so long the current crop of school children will have their own children in school by the time anyone orders ECOT to pay a dime back to the public schools from whence it came.
The trick would be to stop the next heist before it takes place. It’s too late for this 60 million. G-O-N-E. Blown. Never getting it back.
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Did ECOT ever release what they pay their CEO’s and managers and staff? Why aren’t these schools subject to the same transparency requirements as public schools?
Is there a single person in state government who has any real idea where any of this money went?
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I bet they haven’t even released their enrollment and graduation numbers.
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Anyone who puts this into this Senate Bill 3 or any other bill will LOSE MY VOTE!
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Your vote doesn’t matter. Ohio is gerrymandered to elect incumbent Republican politicians. Democracy is DOA in Ohio.
Confirm with the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Peggy Lehner, whose sister is reportedly on the Fordham payroll.
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Online education: the best way to POORLY educate the masses.
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