Shame on the Ohio House for pushing off till September action on critical charter school reform bill: editorial
The Ohio House shamelessly blew it last month when it failed to act on Substitute House Bill 2, a landmark charter reform bill aimed at ensuring that Ohio's charter schools are no longer a national joke. Too many of these schools waste taxpayers' money, escape proper oversight and cruelly fail poorer children and their parents -- making reform an urgent priority, one that Gov. John Kasich also has embraced.
Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger should correct this "mistake" – and show the Republican-dominated House isn't in thrall to big-dollar political contributions executives of for-profit charter firms have made to the GOP -- by calling the House back into session so it can vote on the bill. The House doesn't officially return from its recess until September.
Ohio Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Republican from Kettering who admirably has led the way in the effort to improve Ohio's weak charter school laws, has added teeth to a deficient House bill.
Reform is overdue. The current system has been blasted by a national charter organization as the "Wild, Wild West" of charter schools because there are too many sponsors who sit on their hands and don't manage their schools or prevent abuses by rapacious insiders.
HB 2 could greatly improve charter schools by holding the sponsors -- agencies that open these schools -- far more accountable. The bill requires sponsors to provide monitoring, oversight and technical assistance to each school and to have a plan in place if the school's performance suffers, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission.
In addition, the bill would require more financial transparency, as pressed for by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, and end sponsor-hopping, so that failing schools can't shop for a new sponsor.
House members do not need more time to study this bill. The Senate's changes aren't state secrets. Many of the proposals have been talked about for months and some were stripped out of the original HB 2 last spring.
Co-sponsor Kristina Roegner, a Republican from Hudson, apparently has no problem with the changes. "The Senate improved the bill and I don't say that often about the Senate," said Roegner recently.
House members should swiftly approve Substitute House Bill 2 to help ensure that Ohio's charter school system is effective and strong.Shame on the Ohio House for pushing off till September action on critical charter school reform bill: editorial | cleveland.com:
