William Phillis, former deputy state superintendent of education in Ohio, is appalled by the waste and corruption in the charter sector. The state constitution requires a common school system, and charter schools and vouchers violate the state constitution. Ohio has had some of the biggest financial scandals in charter world (think ECOT), yet the Republican legislature continues to demand more funding for charters and vouchers. In this post, he likens charters to the one-room schools that were closed down long ago. He also notes that half of the 600 charters authorized in Ohio have closed.
William Phillis writes:
Charter Schools Conceptually and In Practice Are a Scourge on the Education Landscape In Ohio
Not all charter schools and their management companies are rife with fraud and corruption. Nor are all charters low-performing. Nor do all of them shortchange students to stack-up shameless profits. Nor do all of them practice nepotism in hiring, cherry-picking students, and closing without notice. However, the charter industry, as a whole, is rife with all of the above. Even if the charter industry would be free of all these negatives (and more), the concept and practice of chartering is wrong-headed.
The charter industry is inefficient within its own parameters and causes the whole of provisions for education to be inefficient. Historically the state has allocated between 34 to 45 percent of its General Revenue Fund (GRF) to K-12 education. Currently, about 40% of the state GRF is allocated to K-12 education.
Due to the demands of other state programs and services, the percentage of the state General Revenue Budget allocated to K-12 education will not likely increase substantially in the future.. Tax funds siphoned away from school districts for charters (and vouchers) duplicates facilities and programs which causes inefficient use of tax funds and reduces educational opportunities for students in both districts and charters.
Since 1900, the state forced school districts to consolidate to expand educational opportunities and to use tax dollars more efficiently. In 1900 there were about 3500 school districts. Ten thousand one room school buildings were in operation. Now there are 612 districts and no one room schools in operation. However, the state has issued more than 600 charters to private individuals, 300 or so of which have closed. Most charters serve less students than the school districts that the state forced to close. If smaller is finer, then why doesn’t the state force deconsolidation of school districts?
The smaller charter enrollments typically reduce breadth of programs and opportunities for students. The charters duplicate programs and services which exacerbates the inefficiencies. What are state officials thinking?
Charter schools are largely deregulated. For the sake of students and taxpayers there is no justification for a differential between public schools and charters in the matter of regulations. The original idea of chartering was that some teachers and parents would propose to a board of education that they would create innovative, creative programming and demonstrate better results in exchange for reduced regulations. As an industry, charters have been neither creative nor innovative. Nor has the charter industry outpaced traditional public schools in academic performance; however, reduced regulations have spawned fraud and corruption coupled with little or no accountability and transparency.
Charter schools have no constitutional basis.
The charter school experiment in Ohio has been rife with fraud and corruption and low performance. Billions in tax funding has been stolen and wasted. The experiment is a failure. There is no justification for this experiment to continue.
Learn more about the EdChoice voucher litigation
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VOUCHERS HURT OHIO
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 |ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://ohiocoalition.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A strategic thinker and planner would have to look at the education situation in Ohio as a lost cause and a very, very bad omen for this nation. And when a loss is expected, there are three possible plans of action. The first is surrender, hopefully with terms, but usually unconditionally. The second is to plan and implement resistance activities, whether they be political or otherwise. The third is somewhere in between, a state of being called “inner exile,” in which one neither outwardly resists nor inwardly agrees. We’re at that third stage nearing the first here in Ohio. Resistance now only feeds political growth of republicans because it is purely based on willful ignorance.
Let’s look at the reality of Ohio’s education landscape: Republicans (and a lot of Democrats) who have pushed all the bad education policies in the state for almost two decades have never been punished or held accountable for their actions. A gerrymandered state in which power in the state legislature will never change, the congressional map will stay unfair, and the Democratic Party seems to be a sub-operation of the state republican party. Middle class, “wealthy” public school districts who–likely funded by Fordham-related interests–push a “Robin Hood” political agenda in which funding for urban public districts is seen as a greater threat than vouchers or charters. And most of all, an electorate that just does not care about education as an issue. They’ve proven it over and over again in the past 20 years. What makes anyone think it will change in the next 20 given the current trajectory of the state’s political future?
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Republican political growth is based purely on willful ignorance. Really mangled that final sentence in first paragraph.
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“You’re either part of the solution
or you’re part of the problem.”
If your strategy (solution)
doesn’t end the problem,
you’re part of the problem.
The only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil
is for the “good”
to do nothing,
THAT STOPS IT…
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What’s happening in Ohio reveals that a pack of elected lying, thieves, frauds, cons now make up the majority of that state’s government.
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“As an industry, charters have been neither creative nor innovative.” now that’s not entirely true. Charters innovatively created some of the most ingenious ways to steal money from everyone and are as creative as Stephen King at thinking up ways of causing psychological trauma to people. Charters are an innovation party, like if cryptocurrency and CIA black sites had a baby.
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The imagery of your final sentence- my change, spawned a cluster of malignant cells and the nation was forced to birth it.
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David Pepper, author of Laboratories of Autocracy, has done a fine job of covering Ohio during the midterms. His Twitter whiteboard videos offer clear explanations of just what is going on there. Here’s his take on the GOP’s latest move to strip school boards of their authority; a reminder, this was also Scott Walker’s playbook in Wisconsin.
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You just hit a nerve. David Pepper was chair of the Ohio Democratic Party from 2015-2020. When I “joke” about the state party being a subsidiary of the state republican party, it is his face that I see. He’s a rich kid who has never had to work an honest day in his life, had his daddy buy him Ivy League connections and a political career, and doesn’t have the slightest clue about how politics actually affects real people. He’s a grifter par-excellence.
He recruited some of the worst candidates possible and literally handed the state over to republicans without a single word. To follow his advice on anything is to ensure the strengthening of one party rule to kill the last vestiges of democracy. Other than that, don’t have strong feelings about him.
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And remember, while he squawks about actions at school boards, he was unable to create a credible, statewide campaign to educate citizens about the cost of charters, ECOT and vouchers. They ALL thrived under his watch as party chairman and every candidate his party opposed at the state level won or was promoted. And this is the guy who’s going to tell us about how to deal with school boards?
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Thanks for that info, Greg. Any chance he’s repented or is he just grifting off the mess he’s somewhat responsible for?
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I’ve “met” him twice at Dem functions and his arrogance oozes out of him. I have come to the conclusion after observing him for about 10 years that his goal is to get you to agree with him, whether he’s right or wrong. That’s literally all he cares about. It’s all a game for him. Check out Ohio politics from 2015 -2020 as well as this mid-term “report card”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Ohio_elections. If he doesn’t get paid by republicans, he provided them with millions of dollars of in-kind work.
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Greg, your links go to the same site, with no definition.
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They are the three Wikipedia links to: 2016 Ohio elections, 2018 Ohio elections, 2020 Ohio elections. All on Pepper’s watch.
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Remember when we repeated asked, how can the education mess in Ohio not be made an asset for Democrats? Look no further than David Pepper to understand who was most ineffective and never made political capital out of the ECOT/charter/voucher mess. That’s why I’m so pessimistic about the future of public education in Ohio. When Pepper could have tried to do something about it, he did absolutely nothing and looked down his nose at education advocates who were trying to educate him.
As you can see, the mention of his name in my vicinity immediately lights a fuse.
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Two more “report cards”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Ohio_elections
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Ohio_elections
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