Ohio has one of the worst charter sectors in the country.
In 2015, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post agreed that Ohio’s Charters had become a national joke. Margaret Raymond, leader of CREDO, which conducts studies of state charter sectors, said to Ohioans, “Be glad that you have Nevada, so you are not the worst,” referring to Ohio’s charters.
Two-thirds of Ohio’s charters are rated failing by the state. Enrollment in charters is falling. The number of charters is declining. Ohio’s failing charter schools drain $1 billion a year from Ohio’s public schools.
Why is Ohio taking $1 Billion a year from public schools to sustain failing charter schools?
In short, Ohio’s charter sector is a disaster.
So now is exactly the time when Aaron Churchill of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute attacks Bill Phillis, the retired assistant superintendent of education, a courtly gentleman who has warned about the fiscal dangers of charters for Ohio public schools for years and whose warnings have been prophetic.
Bill Phillis is a hero of education in Ohio and in the nation. He is paid by no one to tell the truth.
Aaron Churchill works for a rightwing think tank that is funded by Gates, and a long list of foundations, whose purpose is to advance the cause of privatization. (I was a founding member of that organization at a time when its endowment of $40 million was considered adequate, and I opposed the pursuit of outside funding, then turned against TBF’s goal of privatization.) TBF sponsors charter schools in Ohio (another decision I opposed because I don’t believe think tanks should sponsor charter schools).
Other than his employment at TBF, I have no idea who Churchill is. I think he owes Mr. Phillis a personal apology.
As you will see from this link, Stephen Dyer, former legislator, came to Bill Phillis’s defense.
As did Denis Smith, who worked in the Ohio Department of Education charter office.
As do I.
Stephen Dyer wrote in defense of Bill Phillis,
“I guess what I’m most disappointed by though is Churchill’s utter lack of deference and respect for Phillis, who more than any single person in the history of the state has held politicians’ feet to the fire on equal and adequate funding for all students.
”Frankly, Phillis has forgotten more education funding and policy than either I or Churchill will ever know. Churchill’s cheap, ad hominem attacks on this man who has spent his life fighting for all kids to receive a world-class education is truly distressing.”
This is a time when decent people echo the words of attorney Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy at the celebrated Army-McCarthy hearings, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Privatization’s messaging reflects the Trump playbook. Professional standards of integrity and “decency” don’t apply.
Wasn’t it Churchill who wrote an opinion piece in the Columbus Dispatch in which he claimed that Figlio’s research about the failure of Ohio vouchers included a finding about the value of competition (not addressed in the research)? Didn’t Fordham write the foreword to Figlio’s voucher research that made the same claim?
The libertarian Bluegrass Institute published an opinion piece advocating for charter schools, an article that previously appeared at “The Hill”. Corroboration for the points cited as research findings is impossible when the research isn’t made available upon request.
At one time, misleading journalists or misrepresenting research would have resulted in a person’s termination because credibility mattered to an organization.
It’s become evident that the wealthy like Gates and, his hires, value winning above all else. If the public is misled or can be kept in the dark, the richest 0.1%’s hires, win. Like Trump repeated, “to the victor, go the spoils”. ( The U.S. government of the people, by the people and for the people made the practice illegal.)
In Sept. 2018, Gates sponsored an Education Attainment Summit in Columbus, Ohio.
The speaker, John Friedman, from Brown University was not identified in promotional materials as a Gates’ Impatient Optimist and, the other event speaker, Stanford’s Hanushek, posts a 37 page c.v. that omits the grants he receives.
Fordham insisted Ohio charters couldn’t be compared on per pupil funding, because when we do that we realize charter students actually take a share of the state funding for every PUBLIC school students that remains in the public school.
However. Now they are lobbying for more money for charters, so they’re using a per student share.
This stuff is completely incoherent. They use whatever measure gets them where they want to go – more charters and more charter funding. If that means refusing to use a per pupil measure one year and then using a per pupil measure the next, they will do it.
“Think tank” is an overstatement. They’re a charter and voucher lobbying group. They offer absolutely nothing to public schools or public school students or public school families – NINETY PER CENT of families in this state, yet they have captured our state legislature.
I would like to see a measure of the time and effort Columbus spends on charters and vouchers compared to the time and effort they put in on behalf of the remaining 90% of students and schools. It’s backwards. They spend 90% of their effort on 10% schools. Every single legislative session is hijacked by this lobby. They produce nothing at all for public schools down there.
I’m tired of paying the ed reformers who are on the public payroll. If they refuse to work on behalf of the 90% of Ohio school families who attend the unfashionable public sector schools we’ll withhold 90% of their salaries.
and in so many states, not only “on the public payroll” but honored and beloved and promoted to the public by the Democratic party
The ed reformers in state government don’t even have to ADD anything of value to public schools. The performance bar for them is much lower.
If they spent this year just getting Ohio public schools back to where they were in 2008 they would have done more than they’ve done in 20 years.
Just don’t actively harm our schools. That’s all we’re asking. That’s the absolute best we can expect in this state as long as the echo chamber own our state government.
The BEST we can hope for out of this gang is neglect. That would be a improvement over actively weakening existing public schools. They’ve set a VERY low bar.
I wish someone in ed reform would answer why it’s okay that charter and voucher supporters exclusively lobby on behalf of charter and private school families, but public school supporters are not permitted to lobby on behalf of public school families without being demonized and smeared by ed reformers.
Why don’t our students get advocates in and around government? Are our schools and students less valuable and less worthy of support? Are out schools and students the “default” who can be safely ignored?
So charter and private schools get dedicated and passionate advocates who work EXCLUSIVELY for those schools and students but public school families are only permitted to have “agnostics”?
How is that equitable? I reject that. I want people who actually work on behalf of our schools. There are none of those people in ed reform, so I want people from outside the club.
It can be seen as a sign of success when your opponents resort to personal attacks, use of Gringrichian political hyperbole like “bizarre”, and undermine their own “apples-to-apples” argument before they hit the period of the end of the sentence. It was truly amusing to see “economic” arguments buttress a case that was easy for anyone who’s read through chapter two of “The Death and Life of…” to take down with little effort. Now explain to people who don’t pay attention why this is a big deal.
Greg-
Politico Magazine has an article, “Sherrod Brown is not an Idiot”.
The US Secretary of Education and the governor of Florida are promoting another cheerleading event for private school students and their families.
Still waiting for an ed reformer in government to do the same for public school students.
It’s simply amazing how “the agnostics” never seem to get around to doing anything for public school students, teachers, or schools.
I’m starting to think they’re not “agnostic” at all. Let me know when they do the public school marketing event on the public dime. I’ll be waiting a long time. It’s been 20 years. They haven’t found time yet.
DeVos’ entire work output last week was a private meeting with voucher lobbyists and promoting Florida’s voucher program. It takes real WORK to pretend 90% of students, families and schools don’t exist and have no value but ed reformers really put effort into it.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
What’s glaring to me is the over all tone of the article:
We get public funds and we deserve them. We don’t require the same overrsight because we are innovators.
Once the toe hold is gained, it’s just a matter of reaching the top.
Unfortunately, if you knew little of the school reform movement, you could easily be swayed by the article. He writes a good persuasive essay. He’s merely defending the underfunded and forgotten children of the poor and working class.
😦
This is a time when decent people echo the words of attorney Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy at the celebrated Army-McCarthy hearings, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
And this blog, among others is functioning in the capacity of Edward R. Murrow in exposing to view the fraud, waste, and abuse in the charter industry and here in Ohio, those who are funding the perpetual “we are so poor” claims from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the insults hurled at defenders of democratic governance of public schools. Here are a few of the RICH folk, whose foundations and business support the poor me claims and insults from Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
RECENT FUNDERS (Excluding individuals) American Federation for Children, Achelis and Bodman Foundation, Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation, Collaborative for Student Success, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, George Gund Foundation, Hastings Education Fund, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Joyce Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Kern Family Foundation, Kovner Foundation, Leona B. and Harry M. Helmsley Trust, Louis Calder Foundation, Lovett & Ruth Peters Foundation, Lynch Foundation, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Nord Family Foundation, Roger and Susan Hertog, Smith Richardson Foundation, Strada Education Network, Walton Family Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, William E. Simon Foundation.
And here are PARTNERS claimed by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, also eager to undermine democratic governance of major institutions, including public schools.
50 Can, Agudath Israel of America, American Enterprise Institute, American Federation for Children, American Legislative Exchange Council, Brookings, Center for American Progress, Center for Reinventing Public Education, Democrats for Educational Reform, Education Cities, Education Next, Foundation for Excellence in Education, Great Schools, Hoover Institution, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, National Council on Teacher Quality, Philanthropy Ohio, Core Knowledge, Philanthropy Roundtable, PIE Network, School Choice Ohio, Stand for Children, State Policy Network, Students First Ohio, Students First.org.
No one of these funders or partners is as well qualified as Bill Phillis, or Diane Ravitch to call out the BS from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute…but in the main they prefer civil discourse to personal attacks like those from the Fordham’s shill–Aaron Churchill.
I read a lot of ed reformers and once they lay out their plans for privatization they always add something like this:
“many U.S. students might choose to attend traditional schools and follow pathways curated or managed by those schools.”
There’s this assumption that public schools will be there as a back-up, forever, no matter how much funding and support they divert to private contractors and all the management and consultant layers that come along with private contractors.
These schools will be stripped bare. They’ll be lucky to be able to heat the building, let alone provide any kind of comprehensive education in one location. They won’t have the student numbers to be able to offer anything like what is offered in even a working class public school.
The plans rest on a lie. The lie is that people can “choose” traditional schools outside the ed reform “service provider” scheme, no matter how completely the ed reform agenda is adopted.
They want the public to believe they can have hundreds of private service contractors operating alongside “traditional schools” but that’s not true. They can’t. They’ll have to choose- menus and vouchers where they pick service providers for pieces of “education” OR comprehensive public schools. They can’t have both.
https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-the-future-of-school-governance-how-will-innovative-education-systems-balance-a-need-for-experimentation-with-a-parents-right-to-make-informed-choices/?utm_source=The+74+Million+Newsletter&utm_campaign=67d20bc140-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_13_11_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_077b986842-67d20bc140-152340405