Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors?
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio doesn't have a simple plan to weed out its bad charter schools.
The state instead has an indirect strategy.
It puts agencies known as "sponsors," called authorizers in most states, in charge of overseeing charter schools, of fixing struggling charters and of closing the ones that can't be fixed. We'll be hearing a lot about Ohio's 69 sponsors this year, since both Gov. John Kasich and House leadership have made them the focus of charter reform plans.
What are they, exactly? Who are they? And why is Ohio just not cleaning up the charter school mess on its own?
We talked this week to Gov. John Kasich, state Superintendent Richard Ross, and State Sen. Peggy Lehner, who heads the Senate Education Committee, about the state's focus on sponsors.
Kasich and Ross said sponsors are the best way to push for improvements at charter schools quickly, without overburdening the Ohio Department of Education. And the governor said having sponsors overseeing the schools will prevent a future governor from undermining them.
Lehner, a Republican from Montgomery County, thinks Kasich's approach may be too narrow. She said she hopes the Senate will come up with changes for other parts of Ohio's charter system this spring.
We also talked to Cleveland officials, who have a head start on looking at sponsor standards and quality, thanks to 2012's Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools.
What is a sponsor, or authorizer?
Charter schools are public schools, just like your local school district.
Should sponsors police charter schools, or should the state? Tell us below.
But they are privately-run and states like Ohio appoint different agencies -- like school districts, state or city panels, colleges and nonprofits -- to "authorize" them to run as a public school.
Those agencies then are responsible for the performance of schools they allow to operate under their good name.
Who are they?
Nationally, 95 percent of authorizers are school districts who agree to back charter schools in the district to give families a choice, according to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA).
Some states also allow the state boards of education or a special state charter board to authorize schools too.
How is Ohio different?
According to NACSA, Ohio and Minnesota are the only states that allow nonprofit agencies to authorize charter schools in a significant way. In Ohio, according to Ohio Department of Education data, nonprofits authorize more than 40 percent of the state's general education charters.
Some of Ohio's nonprofit authorizers are not education institutions at all. Cleveland has Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors? | cleveland.com:
National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) Group: 1 in 5 charter schools not doing well enough to stay open
A group that oversees more than half of the nation's 5,600 charter schools said as many as one in five U.S. charter schools should be shut down because of poor academic performance.
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019784379_charterschools29.html
