The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) was a scam from day one. Early on, state officials questioned its viability and its enrollment numbers. Yet for 18 years, it continued to collect state money. Why?
Stephen Dyer explains why.
Campaign contributions.
“Now that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is closed, it pays to step back and understand why a school that the Ohio Department of Education didn’t approve in 1999 because it didn’t think ECOT could effectively account for its students was shut down 18 years later because … it couldn’t effectively account for its students.
“A major reason that this 18 year, more than $1 billion in state taxpayer funded operation was allowed to continue, despite repeated signs they weren’t keeping track of their students. (One of those signs included an audit by then-Auditor Betty Montgomery that showed ECOT had overbilled taxpayers every year between 2001 and 2005.)”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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WOW, that’s a lot of $$$$$ ECOT gave to campaign contributions. BLEAGH.
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This is further proof that a lot of “reform” is a gigantic pay to play scheme. It explains how abject failures flounder on despite poor results. It further confirms that a public institution that builds the future voting public should never be put in the tenuous hands of profiteers whose main goal is profit while a few make money at the expense of many.
By the way, https://www.followthemoney.org/ is an interesting tool to find out who is getting paid by whom.
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Great piece. I would add that ECOT also survived because so many high profile national ed reformers endorsed it, promoted it, and actively sold it to the public.
Jeb Bush actively promoted it. So did John Kasich. So did the Ohio auditor, and HE”S supposedly charged with regulating ECOT.
One of two things is true about this mindless cheerleading of any school that includes the word “charter” – either Bush had no idea what he was talking about and didn’t make the slightest effort to find anything out OR he actually believes that this lousy, corrupt for-profit is a “model” for the country.
Neither one of those bodes well for ed reform.
The one and only reason ECOT ever got ANY scrutiny in Ohio is because a couple of local newspapers started reporting on it and the rest followed.
Ed reformers in state jobs in Columbus did NOTHING. Not only did they do nothing to regulate the school, they did nothing to plan for the closure. They put all those “public school students” out on the street without a second thought. The REASON they can do that is there is a PUBLIC school system that will sort out this mess and get ECOT students back into school. The same public schools they denigrate, smear and defund will be cleaning up the mess they left.
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Just a warning for public school families. They’re doing the same thing they did with ECOT in Ohio with “Summit Learning” except this time it’s all over the country:
“Summit online learning job opening for Marketing director to build community of “brand evangelists” thru digital marketing, conferences & “thought-leadership program” & develop”targeted messaging for key audiences””
Summit Learning is supposed to better quality, but ten years ago the same ed reformers who pushed ECOT were telling us ECOT was high quality.
You’re the “key audience” they’re targeting here with sophisticated marketing.They want to push this into your public school. ECOT was once a “good brand” too, right up until the day it collapsed. You are under no obligation to serve as a “test market” for these people. That is NOT actually why you send your kids to school.
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“The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is closed”
Does this mean they will reopen under the new name “Electronic Classroom of Yesterday (ECOY) and continue where they left off?
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