Ohio’s Failure to Oversee Charters and Youngstown Takeover Are Connected, Funded by Arne Duncan
Two important things relating to education happened in Columbus in June, right before the Ohio legislature went on summer break. The legislature did fast-track a bill to take over the public schools in Youngstown. The legislature didn’t follow through on a promise to regulate Ohio’s notorious charter schools and their sponsors. Now we learn that all this was how Governor John Kasich and his appointed state superintendent, Richard Ross, intended things to work out. And U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will pay for it.
First, at the end of June, on the Wednesday before the legislature adjourned for the summer, without prior warning in the middle of a a committee hearing on a bill to expand full-service, wraparound Community Schools in Ohio, Senator Peggy Lehner introduced a 66 page amendment to establish state takeover of the Youngstown schools by an emergency manager—and a takeover in the future of any school district with three years’ of “F” ratings—rendering the locally elected school board meaningless. Within hours the bill had passed the Senate, moved to the House for concurrence, and been sent to the Governor for signature. There was never a full public hearing on the amended bill.
Second, the legislature took a pass on approving a well-debated bill to improve state oversight of the charter school sector in Ohio. The Senate had passed the bill, and the House had been asked to concur, but instead the bill was not brought to the floor. Everybody speculated this was a move to ensure that the bill would eventually be sent to a conference committee where Ohio’s charter school czars who have invested millions in campaign contributions to Ohio Republicans would have more power to soften the regulations intended to make Ohio’s charter schools more accountable, both academically and fiscally. The Ohio legislature did return this last week of September and sent the bill, as predicted, to a conference committee for further work. We wait to see whether Ohio will get any improvement in the regulation of its charter schools.
It now turns out this is all connected to a huge, $71 million grant awarded earlier this week to Ohio by the U.S. Department of Education to expand charter schools, specifically in Ohio’s Failure to Oversee Charters and Youngstown Takeover Are Connected, Funded by Arne Duncan | janresseger:
