Businessman William Lager launched “The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow” in 2000. Over nearly 20 years, he collected $1 billion from the taxpayers of Ohio, despite the fact that ECOT had the lowest graduation rate in the nation, high attrition, and low scores. Lager created related businesses to which he gave contracts for services. In 2019, he declared bankruptcy rather than pay multimillion dollar fines to the state because of inflated enrollments. Jeb Bush was a commencement speaker one year, Governor Kasich another year. It was great while it lasted: for Lager.
Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Inadequacy writes:
| The ECOT Man: no fiduciary responsibility and no conflict of interest. William Lager, the ECOT Man, is being sued by the state for recovery of funds ECOT gained illegally. Lager created Altair Learning Management to manage ECOT along with IQ Innovation support services. He also engaged a company owned by his daughter for public relations purposes. In a recent filing with the court, Mr. Lager argues that no conflict of interest existed in this arrangement. He founded ECOT, Altair and IQ Innovation. Lager’s daughter’s PR firm provided services for marketing and PR. No conflict of interest here! Mr. Lager also argues that in his role in the operation of ECOT, he had no fiduciary responsibility. He says he had no access to or authority over the public funds ECOT received. Right! Lager did make some legitimate points in his filing that should be of interest to taxpayers. He indicates that ECOT had received awards for excellence from the State Auditor and that State Auditor had been a graduation speaker at ECOT. That state officials have been negligent in holding charter operators accountable is well known. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If you live in Ohio you might remember how enthusiastically the ed reform echo chamber promoted ECOT. They marketed the school over and over, lavished praise on it, used it to justify expanding “cyber charters” all over the country, fought every attempt to regulate it or conduct a real audit.
2010:
“The national charter-school spotlight will be on the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow today as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addresses graduates from Ohio’s largest online school.
The national charter-school spotlight will be on the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow today as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addresses graduates from Ohio’s largest online school.
About 1,500 students, the statewide school’s largest graduating class in its 10-year life, are receiving diplomas this year. About 1,000 will attend commencement in the Schottenstein Center.
“To have Gov. Bush come and speak at their graduation is a real indication of the importance of online learning, not only in Ohio, but nationally,” said Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning in Virginia. ECOT founder Bill Lager used to be a board member of the association.”
100% lockstep promotion from the leaders of the “movement”. No dissenters or questions permitted and no real analysis of how the school operated or how the students were doing. Professional cheerleaders.
None of them have ever taken responsibility for it or explained how they got suckered into promoting it. They just pretend it never happened.
https://www.dispatch.com/article/20100612/NEWS/306129776
A year later here’s another national ed reform promoting and marketing ECOT:
“COLUMBUS, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ohio Gov. John Kasich addressed the Class of 2011 of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) at its 11th annual graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 11 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
More than 2000 students from all over Ohio were eligible to participate in the ceremonies, making it the largest graduating class of any school in the United States.
ECOT is Ohio’s first and largest online charter school. In addition to Gov. Kasich, ECOT school officials and class representatives spoke to students and guests.
In the spirit of the fulltime online school, about 1000 students attended in person at the event, but many others watched from their homes around Ohio via an unusual live event webcast (www.ecotohio.org).”
Jeb Bush and John Kasich never found time to enter an actual public school in this state, but they went out of their way to promote this rip-off, fraudulent charter.
And all of ed reform clapped along with them.
I get annoyed when I see John Kasich brought in as an “expert” on news shows. I don’t know how well he served Ohio in other areas, but his education policies were a reckless disaster. I also read that he is under consideration for a cabinet post in an inclusive Biden administration. There are a lot more talented Democrats I’d like to see in leadership positions instead.
yes, all lauded collaboration with Kasich feels like a betrayal
I complained about Kasich speaking at Democrat convention. Others thought it was a brilliant coup. Aside from hating public schools and labor unions….
Of all the scandals related to charter schools I read about, this one has had the power to enrage me again and again. I sat here this morning trying to formulate a response to this, but continually come up empty-handed. It’s hard to use the word “egregious” (it means “conspicuously bad”) or “execrable’ (“detestable,” “wretched”) because all of these charter school ripoffs can be so called. These scams attenuate perfectly good adjectives.
So, I’ve decided to let the drug dealer Calvin “Cheese” Wagstaff (played by the great Clifford “Method Man” Smith, Jr. from the Wu Tang Clan) from HBO’s “The Wire” take this one. In one scene, after robbing a rival drug dealer, Cheese says to his compatriots:
“This s**t is unseemly.”
Yes it is.
Apologies, Diane, for the epithet–even in its elided form.
You are forgiven. “The Wire” taught me to get over my squeamishness about public vulgarity. Now we hear the same language from our president. He saw a fire department truck spraying water in the air at his Tampa rally, to cool off the packed and maskless crowd. He didn’t know who they were. He said, “Who are they? Friend or foe? If they are foes, I’ll get those sons of bitches.” I was trying to imagine any other president saying that in public. I couldn’t.
Thanks Diane!