Key Ohio Officials Doing Business With The ECOT Family Of Businesses
Ohio’s largest for-profit charter school, ECOT, is embroiled in a contentious lawsuit with the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the rhetoric has been ramping up all summer long, with ECOT now running regular commercials claiming that ODE is trying to shut down the school. We recently shared that the media company employed by ECOT (via the school’s management company). Third Wave Communications, is run by Jessica Lager Harris, the daughter of Altair and IQ Innovations owner, and ECOT founder, Bill Lager.
For the past decade plus, Bill Lager has been a major donor to campaigns of many of Ohio’s public officials, including key individuals who are in positions to enact stronger accountability rules for charters, including ECOT, but have continued to instead put off such changes, instead taking positions that favor the e-school.
It turns out that the money is flowing both ways…
Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger was the keynote speaker at the ECOT Graduation ceremony this school year, following a long list of Republican officials who graced that stage:
John Kasich spoke at the 2011 ECOT graduation. Republican Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell spoke in 2013. In 2014, House Speaker Bill Batchelder spoke at the ECOT graduation ceremony and a year later, after retiring from the Ohio House, joined the lobbying firm representing ECOT. Last year [2015] Ohio Auditor David Yost spoke at the graduation.
Conveniently, the Ohio House Republican Caucus (OHROC) has turned around and hired Third Wave Communications to produce a variety of commercials for them, starting with a personal introduction for Rosenberger:
When the Ohio House Republican Caucus wanted to produce a commercial Key Ohio Officials Doing Business With The ECOT Family Of Businesses:
