Scandal of Ohio Charter School Governance Finally Gets Some Attention
Nearly a billion dollars flowing out of the state’s public education budget every year. Scandals brought to light years after a charter school closes, money not recoverable because it’s been so long, no news coverage in time to make a difference. Blog postings here and there about outrageous profits for Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow czar, William Lager. Charter czars and management companies buying the legislature.
Will it ever be possible to get the money back where it belongs in public schools in a state where—even in the richer suburbs—families now have to pay added fees for their sons to play on the football team? This is Ohio today.
With the coming of spring this year, however, there are some sprouts of hope.
Ohio’s state auditor, William Yost, has begun looking into big and small scandals alike. Yesterday the Plain Dealer reported that Yost fined two officials of the Elite Academy of the Arts, $45,000 they had misspent on lavish meals and airfare before the school was closed in 2012 for academic failure. Elite Academy of the Arts was located on East 93rd street in a very poor neighborhood, but according to Yost, “It turns out the ‘Elite’ in their name refers to their personal tastes when spending public money intended for education.” Yost has taken to naming bluntly the corruption in Ohio’s unregulated charter sector: “theft from children.”
State auditor Yost is to be commended for using the power of his office to investigate the operation and supposed regulation of Ohio’s charter schools. In February, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Yost is undertaking the investigation of three not-for-profit long- Scandal of Ohio Charter School Governance Finally Gets Some Attention | janresseger: