From Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio:
“New Ohio state report card data show that Ohio charter school grads are far less likely to earn college degrees than Ohio school district grads. These data give us an idea of how schools prepare stduents for success beyond the test score. And results aren’t good for Ohio charters overall.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is probably because they include the online charters in Ohio, but that shouldn’t matter because ed reformers in this state pushed the online charters as much or more than “brick and mortar” charters and they flat-out refuse to regulate them.
I mean, honestly. How did they think this was gonna go? They have a huge group of students “attending” online school with little or no supervision, which anyone with a grain of common sense knew would be a disaster, since their parents ARE AT WORK so can’t also be “homeschooling”.
It would be funny if it weren’t so ludicrous. No one at the state level is apparently capable of regulating these schools. They basically beg them to comply and when they don’t nothing happens. Well, something happens- they push more charter schools.
Enrollment is down in charters in urban and suburban areas. Ed reform’s response? Let’s open some completely unregulated charter schools in rural areas! You can’t fragment rural area schools the way ed reform fragments in cities- BOTH groups of schools will suffer because rural areas depend on X number of students to be able to offer a full load of courses. But no one puts any thought to this- in fact, the Secretary of Education sneers when “systems” are mentioned even though schools ARE systems no matter what she calls them.
When charters went in in this state the state promised to fund them.
But they don’t. Instead they pull the funding from children who remain in public schools and redistribute it to charters.
If the State of Ohio wants a state system of schools the State of Ohio should pay for it, instead of taking it out of state funding from children who remain in public schools.
Off-topic, but have you seen this yet? http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-florida-school-voucher-investigation-1018-htmlstory.html
Dienne77
Thanks for the link Appauling. Great investigative journalism. Just what Ohio wants–The schemes of DeVos and Jeb Bush. Not so far off topic.
WOW! We know that Ohio has an OPIOD crisis. So with the deformers taking ove the schools of Ohio, now an educational WASTELAND plus opiod crisis. Who will help these people? Far too many people of Ohio can’t seem to understand that they have been HAD by big money.
An aside: There is a whole bunch of cocaine (a lot, a lot) in this country ALL from the SAME source. This particular load of cocaine is now being sold in various parts of this country. Wonder what happened here? I have my suspicions, but no evidence.
Here’s the national leader of ed reform:
“Now think about how you eat. You could visit a grocery store, or a convenience store, or Pike Place to buy food and cook at home. Or you could visit a restaurant of which there are many types—fine dining, fast food or something in between.
Near the Department of Education, there aren’t many restaurants. But you know what? Food trucks started lining the streets to provide options. Some are better than others; and some are even local restaurants that have added trucks to their businesses to better meet customer’s needs.
Now, if you visit one of those food trucks instead of a restaurant, do you hate restaurants? Or are you trying to put grocery stores out of business?”
I mean, seriously? We have to explain to her that children are guaranteed a slot for a free public education when they turn six? She needs a primer on “universal public systems” and how those differ dramatically from markets?
We have SEEN this in Ohio. We have seen charters close down with no warning and students sent to public schools. Thank goodness ed reformers had the public system as a back up or there would have been some very upset parents. I see it every single year in my home district. They go in and out of the online charters because they CAN- they can because the public school is standing ready to admit them.
Universal. Free. Guaranteed by right to every resident. Not at all like a restaurant.
Sadly, we are in a race to the bottom where results no longer matter. The clear objective is mass privatization where the main goal is to transfer tax dollars from the middle class to the wealthy. A secondary goal is to destroy any union allegiance in education.
Busting unions is the first goal, I think — thereby enabling the profiteering.
By design. The charters teach to the test. Period. They don’t provide a well-rounded education. They treat the “scholars” like little criminals. The “scholars” walk in lines, silent, with a “bubble” in their mouths, assuming the position with hands behind their backs. They “learn” to dress in uniform and each uniform infraction is met with punishment. They “learn” to sit silently, hands folded, and respond with grunts and prompts as the “teacher” grunts and prompts at them in group-think cult-like ways. Punishment is always on hand==I don’t even know what the reward(s) is/are. Is the reward getting a brightly colored t-shirt and the day off and a bus ride to demonstrate/protest for more charters? More, more, more?
Indeed, union busting is a goal. Profits from the taxpayer trough is another. Making “those kids” compliant is another. Making them unable to think for themselves is another. After all, you’ve got to be dumbed down to fill the oligarch’s positions of employment — for instance, at Walmart.
They don’t want thinkers. Thinking is reserved for their own offspring.
It is no wonder that charter “scholars” aren’t college ready.
The no-excuses charters are colonialism.
YES.
Charter Grads Less Likely to Earn College Degees than Public School Grads
That’s what test prep, restrictive discipline, and turning teaching into a gig instead of a profession all do, they limit the potential of young people.
Here’s my hunch: in the coming weeks I expect to read that Ohio is revising its report card to de-emphasize this data and place a greater emphasis on some data set that shows charters in a more favorable light.
And push it on certain news outlets ALWAYS favorable to “reform.”
You aren’t likely to see any reports from the folks at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute about this, LOL.