Eight school districts in Ohio are suing Facebook for recruiting students for the failing online charter school ECOT (Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow). Real public schools that enroll and educate real students lost money to the for-profit virtual charter school, whose owner pocketed millions and ultimately went bankrupt rather than pay back any of the millions it collected from the state. Over the nearly 20 years that ECOT operated, it received close to a billion dollars that did not go to public schools where students actually showed up and were counted.
Ohio School Districts Sue Facebook Over Failed Online Charter School
By Doug Livingston, The Akron Beacon Journal Education Week April 14, 2019
Cuyahoga Falls, Woodridge and six other Ohio school districts are suing Facebook for about $250,000 in public education funding lost when the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow imploded last year.
The districts, which may never be made whole for state funding they lost when ECOT inflated attendance, are alleging that Facebook knew the online charter school was financially failing when it sold ads to help ECOT boost enrollment. That, under Ohio law, would be an illegal and “fraudulent transfer.”
Founded in 2000, ECOT grew to be the largest charter school in Ohio, claiming 15,239 students enrolled in 2016 when the Ohio Department of Education ran an attendance audit.
The virtual headcount found students spending as little as an hour a day on home computers. But the state was funding the charter school, using tax dollars diverted from local school districts, as if kids were attending full time.
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The attendance scandal forced ECOT founder Bill Lager, who had donated $2.1 million to school choice supporters, to return $2.5 million monthly until taxpayers got back the $80 million the school overbilled the state in just 2016 and 2017.
ECOT folded in January 2018 before making the first repayment.
Now, every public school district in Ohio that lost students and state funding to ECOT is in line for what’s left. Governor and then-Attorney General Mike DeWine announced in August a lawsuit to hold Lager, his companies and top ECOT executives personally liable for the lost public funds.
From Bill Phillis, unofficial ombudsman for school funding in Ohio:
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
I finished reading Noliwe Rooks’ book last week. I live in a district in Ohio she wrote about because it’s one that pursues parents of students who enroll their children who don’t live in their districts. Curious why they would not be a part of this law suit. Especially since the money “lost” to those students doesn’t even come close to what they lose to privatization and charter schools. I plan to find out. I hope teachers, parents, and citizens in any district in Ohio that doesn’t try to recover funds stolen by ECOT or its actions will pay attention and make noise to find out why they don’t.
A lawsuit against Facebook gets attention. Thanks to the school districts that sued.