Schooling in the Ownership Society: Crooked pol Calderon, tied to Michelle Rhee, finally going to jail

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Crooked pol Calderon, tied to Michelle Rhee, finally going to jail:

Crooked pol Calderon, tied to Michelle Rhee, finally going to jail

Michelle Rhee, former D.C. school chancellor and darling of the far-right and corporate reformers, used Students First money to buy politicians like former CA State Sen. Ron Calderon. Now it looks like Calderon is finally on his way to prison while Rhee has ended up at a fertilizer company. 

Good riddance to both.

More than three years after FBI agents raided the Capitol office of former state Sen. Ron Calderon, the corruption case against the Montebello Democrat finally comes to an end.

Calderon, who pleaded guilty in June to one count of mail fraud for accepting tens of thousands of dollars and jobs for his children in exchange for official acts, is set to be sentenced at noon in federal court in Los Angeles. Originally charged with 24 counts, including bribery, money laundering and aiding in the filing of false tax returns – allegations that could have netted Calderon a maximum 396-year sentence – prosecutors are now requesting that he serve five years in prison. -- Sacramento Bee

Calderon would never have been elected in the first place were it not for Michelle Rhee. She funneled $371,000 to him, which helped put his losing campaign over the Schooling in the Ownership Society: Crooked pol Calderon, tied to Michelle Rhee, finally going to jail:

Teachers union mobilizes to boost turnout for education-related initiatives | EdSource

Teachers union mobilizes to boost turnout for education-related initiatives | EdSource:

Teachers union mobilizes to boost turnout for education-related initiatives

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson promotes Props. 55 and 58 at CTA voter turnout event in San Jose on Saturday.

With less than three weeks to go before the Nov. 8 election, the California Teachers Association this weekend mobilized teachers, elected officials and other supporters to boost voter turnout on behalf of two ballot measures — Propositions 55 and 58 — that will have a direct bearing on schools and community colleges.

According to CTA estimates, over 1,000 teachers and other school staff walked precincts Saturday in several communities from San Diego to Santa Rosa on Saturday, joined by a slew of elected officials who are supportive of public education and allied with the teachers union, including Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendón. There will be a similar mobilization on Sunday.

“Public schools face a destructive $4 billion cut to public school education funding if Prop. 55 doesn’t pass,”  CTA president Eric Heins said at a kickoff event in San Jose Saturday.

Many of those speaking out on behalf of Prop. 55 were motivated by the specter of the brutal budget cuts inflicted on schools and community colleges during the Great Recession as a result of the state’s budget crisis.

“We know that without Prop. 55 we will backslide, not just on education, but on other services and the safety net important to many Californians,” Rendón said.

Backers of the initiatives face the hurdle of getting voters’ attention in an electoral season that has been completely dominated by the most contentious Teachers union mobilizes to boost turnout for education-related initiatives | EdSource:

 money for schools at stake in two state measures

Are Detroit’s Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional? - The New York Times

Are Detroit’s Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional? - The New York Times:

Are Detroit’s Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional?

At one Detroit school, just 4 percent of third graders scored proficient on Michigan’s English assessment test. At another, 9.5 percent did. Those students are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month that asserts that children have a federal constitutional right to the opportunity to learn to read and write.

Illiteracy is the norm at those “slumlike” schools and others in Michigan’s biggest city, according to the plaintiffs. The facilities are decrepit and unsafe. The first thing some teachers do each morning is clean up rodent feces before their students arrive. In some cases, teachers buy the books and school supplies, even the toilet paper.

Lawyers for the students are arguing, in effect, that Michigan is denying their clients the right to a minimally adequate education, an issue that has been raised over the years in courts in other states under their state constitutions.

In Connecticut, a state judge last month ordered sweeping changes to reshape the state’s public schools after concluding that “Connecticut is defaulting on its constitutional duty” to provide all students with an adequate education. The judge concluded that the state’s funding system had “left rich school districts to flourish and poor school districts to flounder.”

Now the litigation in Detroit is raising this issue under the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court has never addressed whether disparities among schools would be constitutionally permissible if, as the court put it in 1973, a state failed “to provide each child with an opportunity to acquire the basic minimal skills necessary” for success in life.

In that bitterly divided 5-4 decision, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the court upheld a Texas law that produced unequal levels of education to students living in different school districts based on the property tax revenues of each district.

The majority maintained that the law was constitutional because it served a rational policy of permitting each school district to decide for itself how much money to spend on education. Whether the level of education was at least minimally adequate in the state’s poorest schools was not at issue inAre Detroit’s Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional? - The New York Times:

Lesson From Houston - UOO & HFT Unite

The War Report on Public Education:

Lesson From Houston - UOO & HFT Unite

Pleas e join Internet radio host Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. for a report on the Houston Education and Civil Rights Summit that took place on October 14th and 15th. Joining Dr. Miller will be members of United Opt Out and the Houston Federation of Teachers - Gus Morales , Dr. Denisha Jones, Zak Rodriguez, and Erika Chalverria.


Please check out these pages to find out more about United Opt Out and this very important summit.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/United-Opt-Out-National/265810576790447

http://www.unitedoptoutnational.org/

https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/17/fighting-for-public-schools-means-fighting-against-systemic-racism-united-opt-out-education-and-civil-rights-summit/

Please tune in this Sunday and learn more about fighting for justice and equity for all children.

Knowledge is power !

RESISTANCE MATTERS
RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE
RESISTANCE IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF EXPRESSION OF DEMOCRACY
RESISTANCE IS SURVIVAL

Please click on the website below to listen live:
http://bbsradio.com/thewarreport
2:00 PM PDT
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or
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Station 1 - 716-748-0150
To call-in and interact live
Station 1 888-627-6008 toll free  



 The War Report on Public Education:

Neoliberalism’s Deadly Experiment | Jacobin

Neoliberalism’s Deadly Experiment | Jacobin:

Neoliberalism’s Deadly Experiment
In Michigan, privatization and free-market governance has left 100,000 people without water.

Over the past year, media reports and op-eds have examined the lead poisoning disaster in Flint, Michigan, from a variety of angles. Some focus on Michigan’s emergency manager laws, which the Republican-dominated legislature has used to suspend democracy in majority-African-American cities, including Flint, Detroit, Pontiac, Highland Park, and Benton Harbor.

Others focus on the larger issue of lead pipes and decaying infrastructure, or the criminal negligence of Governor Rick Snyder and his administration. Still others note that the long history of housing discrimination in Flint, and the racist application of emergency manager laws, help explain why the majority of the poisoning victims are African American (although they include many working-class whites).

Corporate media coverage, however, has ignored the relationship between the water crisis in Flint and ongoing mass water shutoffs in Detroit. More broadly, it has obscured the role of neoliberal restructuring in undermining one of the nation’s largest water systems, and in leaving over one hundred thousand people without running water in a state surrounded by the Great Lakes.

Since 2000, state-appointed emergency managers in Detroit, Highland Park, Flint, and Pontiac have outsourced key functions of their water departments to private companies, while ramping up water shutoffs on low-income households. Since 2013, when Republican governor Rick Snyder placed Detroit under an emergency manager, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD) has shut off water for over one hundred thousand residents, provoking condemnation from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Public health experts have also said that the mass shutoffs will increase infectious disease and infant mortality in Detroit. Meanwhile, even after its lead-contaminated water became a national scandal, Flint has continued to shut off water for residents unable or unwilling to pay for poisoned water.

Whether from shutoffs, contamination, or both, so many poor and working-class urban residents in Michigan lack water to properly bathe, clean, or flush their toilets. Why are so many people unable to use tap water in a state bordering the Great Lakes, the largest group of freshwater lakes on earth?

Michigan’s water crisis is rooted in the hollowing out of the public Neoliberalism’s Deadly Experiment | Jacobin:

 Our new issue, “Rank and File,” is out now. To celebrate its release, new subscriptions are discounted.

Think Your Retirement Plan Is Bad? Talk to a Teacher - The New York Times

Think Your Retirement Plan Is Bad? Talk to a Teacher - The New York Times:

Think Your Retirement Plan Is Bad? Talk to a Teacher

Schoolteachers and others who pursue careers of service in exchange for modest paychecks get lightly regulated retirement plans that often charge excessive fees.

Margaret Jusinski first got to know her investment broker through the breakfasts he provided when he visited her public school in the leafy suburbs of New Jersey, where she teaches middle-school children computer coding and how to build robots made of Legos.

After the bagels, muffins and coffee, the broker made his sales pitch — and Ms. Jusinski bought it. So did many of her colleagues.

The teachers only recently learned how much those meals actually cost them.

Had she been able to choose a simpler, less expensive plan instead of the broker’s costly offering, Ms. Jusinski would have approximately 20 percent more in savings, according to an analysis performed for The New York Times. One colleague would have a balance 50 percent fatter. The list goes on.

“It is a heartbreaking situation for everyone,” said Ms. Jusinski, a mother of two girls who turns 50 on Sunday. “Especially for the staff members who were looking to retire within the next few years.”

Most Americans who save for retirement at work have 401(k) plans, which are generally offered by companies and must by law provide a mix of prudent investment options. But millions of Americans — public school teachers, clergy members, employees of religious institutions or nonprofits, and some charities — are not offered 401(k)’s. Instead they typically must rely on what are known as 403(b) plans, many of which are Think Your Retirement Plan Is Bad? Talk to a Teacher - The New York Times:

JITU BROWN: Charter Schools and Civil Rights - The New York Times

Charter Schools and Civil Rights - The New York Times:

Charter Schools and Civil Rights

To the Editor:

Re “A Misguided Attack on Charter Schools” (editorial, Oct. 13):

The N.A.A.C.P. should be applauded for ratifying a resolution calling for a halt to the expansion of charter schools.

You say charters give children in poor communities their only opportunity for a superior education. Actually, equity gives children an opportunity for excellent education. Here in Chicago, there are public schools that offer Mandarin, Arabic and Spanish and that support every teacher with a classroom aide.

In the same city, same district, there are schools with one teacher aide in the entire building, no world language classes and no librarian. These schools are not failing: They have been failed.

We are not anti-charter ideologues. We applaud the 20 percent of charters that outperform traditional public schools. We are not advocating the mass shutdown of charters, because closing schools harms children.

What must be acknowledged is the ample evidence that charters as a whole have discriminatory discipline practices, serve fewer English-language learners and children with special needs, and are struggling with the excessive expulsion of their students, who are overwhelmingly black and Latino.

The call by the N.A.A.C.P., Black Lives Matter and the Journey for Justice Alliance for a moratorium on charters and school privatization is in the best civil rights tradition.

JITU BROWN

National Director

Journey for Justice Alliance

Chicago

 Charter Schools and Civil Rights - The New York Times:

Georgia Doesn’t Want the State to Take Over Its Schools | deutsch29

Georgia Doesn’t Want the State to Take Over Its Schools | deutsch29:

Georgia Doesn’t Want the State to Take Over Its Schools

On November 08th, 2016, Georgia voters will decide whether they will allow the state to take control of public schools that the state labels as “chronically failing.”

The ballot measure, Amendment 1, is vaguely worded– it does not disclose the fact that school districts will lose money when the state takes control of schools.

As Ballotpedia notes, here is the ballot question that Georgia voters will see:

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?

( ) Yes

( ) No

And if Amendment 1 passes, here is the language that would be added to the Georgia constitution:

Paragraph VIII. Opportunity School District. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph II of this section, the General Assembly may provide by general law for the creation of an Opportunity School District and authorize the state to assume the supervision, management, and operation of public elementary and secondary schools which have been determined to be failing through any governance model allowed by law. Such authorization shall include the power to receive, control, and expend state, federal, and local funds appropriated for schools under the current or prior supervision, management, or operation of the Opportunity School District, all in the manner provided by and in accordance with general law. [Emphasis added.]

The bolded, Georgia-constitution-altering, text above is what Georgia voters will not see as part of the Amendment 1 ballot question text.

However, it seems that word is spreading among Georgia voters, as the October 21, 2016, Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes:

Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed Opportunity School District has significant opposition just weeks ahead of the Nov. 8 election, according to a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll.

The results released Friday found likely voters siding nearly 2-1 against Amendment 1, the referendum that would create a statewide school district to take over Georgia’s lowest performing schools.

The poll question revealed more about the proposal than does the ballot question itself, which has been criticized by opponents as misleading because it does not clearly say that the state would take over schools. …

The resulting state charter schools have no access to local school district funding, but charter schools created as a result of Amendment 1 would get those local tax dollars.

Opponents claim the constitutional amendment would harm school districts Georgia Doesn’t Want the State to Take Over Its Schools | deutsch29:

Teaching Biology at Mountain View High School: Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teaching Biology at Mountain View High School: Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Teaching Biology at Mountain View High School: Technology Integration

As the chime sounds for students to come to their 90-minute Biology I class, Lyuda Shemyakina stands at the door welcoming each student. A “hello,” “good morning,” an exchange of pleasantries or information about homework, quickly passes between teacher and student. It is the morning of September 28, 2016.

These 9th graders enter a large room half of which contains lab tables in the rear and half of which has student desks facing the front whiteboards and teacher’s desk. The front whiteboard is filled with weekly homework instructions for students, the day’s agenda, the lesson’s objective, and upcoming events.

At the beginning of this period every day are the Mountain View High School* video announcements produced and directed by students. The two anchors of the five minute program say that the day is “World Day” (the teacher says that she is wearing her T-shirt from Barcelona). Anchors describe upcoming events, meetings that day, and announcements from various students. As I scan the room, 26 students’ eyes look to the screen. In other schools, announcements come into each room via a loudspeaker and students chat, surf their laptop and tablet screens, or stare into space. Not here.

After the announcements end, Shemyakina turns to the “bell ringer,” an ice-breaker or launching activity, for the hour-and-a-half lesson. On the screen is a slide:

Look back at your model on p. 18**. What were you not sure about? What were you pretty confident about? What questions do you have?

DON’T HAVE A MODEL? DRAW IT NOW

Example: I am not sure I drew the chromosome correctly because ….

In an earlier lesson, students had been asked to draw a model showing how DNA, Teaching Biology at Mountain View High School: Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

The Absurdity of Charter School Oversight in L.A.

The Absurdity of Charter School Oversight in L.A.:

The Absurdity of Charter School Oversight in L.A.

This is about the fact that they want to kill our charters and nothing more.”

-Magnolia CEO Caprice Young

The sky is falling.”

-Chicken Little

As usual, the LAUSD Board spent a significant portion of their time at Tuesday’s meeting ignoring the needs of students enrolled in District schools so they could focus on charter issues. At this meeting,held at a time set aside to ensure maximum convenience for the charters, one new charter “was approved, another was allowed to expand and three others were renewed.” However, most of the focus has been on Magnolia andCelerity for the rejection of their renewal petitions and El Camino Real Charter High School (ECRCHS) for narrowly avoiding advancement in the charter revocation process.

Last year, the charter industry invested “nearly $2.3 million” in “the nation’s most expensive school board elections” to ensure that they were free from the inconvenience of oversight. While the California Charter School Association (CCSA) has stated that they “are deeply concerned that this month District staff have recommended more charter renewal [denials] and material revision denials than they have in the last five years combined”, the recommendations against Magnolia and Celerity should not have been a surprise or seen as a change in policy. In 2014, the Board voted against two other Magnolia campuses “for fiscal mismanagement and a slew of other accounting irregularities.” Celerity had two charter renewal petitions rejected last November. The Board’s interest in the “financial shenanigans” at ECRCHS is a little more surprising, especially since their charter wasrenewed last year with at least two Notices to Cure outstanding. However, the publicity provided by the Los Angeles Daily News investigative reports most likely made the irregularities more difficult The Absurdity of Charter School Oversight in L.A.:

Carl J. Petersen for LAUSD School Board, District 2 because:

All Kids Are Our Kids!

• The LAUSD School Board needs a parent's perspective. None of the current Board members has a child enrolled in the district.
• One size education does not fit all. The District must provide opportunities to all students, not just those who are college bound. We will fight to block the closure of special education centers and return funding to vocational education.
• Eli Broad's plan to privatize education must be stopped. Unlike Mónica García's campaign, this campaign will not be funded by the charter industry. I will answer to the parents and students of the district, not corporate donors.

 CHANGE IS COMING!

March 7, 2017

Carl J. Petersen for LAUSD School Board 2017 (ID# 1384794) -http://www.changethelausd.com/

Vote LAUSD | Vote LAUSD:

Satellite charter schools under fire - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Satellite charter schools under fire - The San Diego Union-Tribune:

Satellite charter schools under fire

California’s booming satellite charter school industry that has persevered through lawsuits, scandals and turf wars suffered a blow this past week when a state appellate court ruled hundreds of the campuses are illegally operating outside their districts.

At issue now is how 150,000 California students — including 25,000 in San Diego County — will continue their education. The court decision also puts at stake millions of dollars in revenue generated by the charters for privately run organizations.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned a lower court decision in a lawsuit filed by the Anderson Union High School District near Redding claiming the Shasta Secondary Home School (now Shasta Charter Academy) illegally opened satellite charter campus, which are officially called resource centers, in its jurisdiction.

Filed Monday and set to go into effect Nov. 16, the appellate decision reverses the lower court ruling, which sided with the charter that was authorized by the nearby Shasta Union High School District. The lower court said it was legal to operate a resource center, as such schools are officially called, in the neighboring Anderson district to give its independent-study students who live there a chance to use computers, receive tutoring and work on assignments in a classroom setting.

Under the State Education Code, independent-study charters are allowed to operate satellite campuses in their home district and in neighboring counties. However, there is nothing in the law about whether a charter can operate satellite centers outside their home district and within their county.

The appellate court ruled by applying “well-established rules of statutory construction to the language of the Charter Schools Act.” 

Benjamin Claasen, director of the charter that the appellate court ruled against, declined to comment on whether the decision would be taken to the California Supreme Court for consideration.

Shy of the state’s highest court reviewing the case for a potential reversal, there are limited options for the charters.

Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the California Charter Schools Association, held a conference call to discuss the ruling on Tuesday, with representatives from about 60 of the state’s nearly 300 non-classroom-based charters participating.  

“If nothing changes and this decision remains in effect, they should be thinking about what steps they might take to address these resource centers,” Soto said in an interview.

Among the options: petitioning the resident school district, county board of education, or the State Board of Education to approve a charter that essentially converts a resource center into a full-fledged charter school. The authorizing agency would gain oversight of the charter and collect up to 3 percent of the charter’s revenue for that service.

Getting a county or state charter would be challenging, if not unlikely, in most cases, Soto said since the petition implies there is no other recourse for approval.  

Andra Donovan, general counsel for the San Diego Unified School District, offers another Satellite charter schools under fire - The San Diego Union-Tribune:

Big Education Ape: STATE APPELLATE COURT LIMITS CHARTER SCHOOL CAMPUSES - The San Diego Union Tribune - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/10/state-appellate-court-limits-charter.html

 

How Goldilocks Opened a Charter School That Nobody Wanted

Big Education Ape: Charter School Approval Flea Flicker: Three charter schools closed by CPS file appeals with stat... http://bit.ly/1QGhKNd

Big Education Ape: Glendale Unified board denies charter school plans; petitioners say they will appeal to county -... http://bit.ly/1P9tvbD

Big Education Ape: Flea Flicker: Rocketship appeals to state board to build school in Concord - ContraCostaTimes http://bit.ly/1RVCrnq

Big Education Ape: Flea Flicker: Should state be able to approve charter schools in Virginia? - Daily Press http://bit.ly/1QPtgEg

Big Education Ape: Washington Charter Schools Find Another Source Of Public Money | KUOW News and Information http://bit.ly/1QPtknC

How We Teach English Learners: 3 Basic Approaches : NPR Ed : NPR

How We Teach English Learners: 3 Basic Approaches : NPR Ed : NPR:

How We Teach English Learners: 3 Basic Approaches 

In a small room in Philadelphia's school administration building, Rosario Maribel Mendoza Lemus, 16, sits in a corner, rubbing sweaty palms on her jeans.

In front of her is a binder with a test she has to take before she's assigned to a new school. A counselor hovers over her shoulder, pointing to a drawing of a book.

She asks, in English: "Do you know what that is?"

"No," says Rosario, who arrived this summer from Honduras, where she made it no further than the sixth grade. She keeps shaking her head, and it's clear that Rosario does not understand anything the counselor is saying.

There are 5 million students like Rosario — English Language Learners or ELLs — living in the U.S., and we're going to spend much of the next year reporting on them. They raise one of the biggest questions facing educators: What's the best way to teach English without losing time on the content students need to learn?

Decades of research point to three basic instructional models:

English as a Second Language is beginners-level English. Developed in the 1930s as an alternative to the "sink or swim" approach, ESL stresses simplified speech and uses visual or physical cues, memorization and drills. ESL instruction is all about getting kids to function in English as quickly as possible. It's considered the least expensive because it's very basic and the classroom can include several language groups.

A second model is known as sheltered instruction. It has two goals: get kids to English proficiency and keep them from falling behind in other subjects. A sheltered instruction classroom may have students with different native languages, and a teacher who covers math, science and social studies. Unlike ESL, sheltered instruction does not focus on the mechanics of English but on proficiency: writing and reading in those content areas. This works especially well with older ELL students.

And finally, there's the dual-language model. Research shows that if you build on a child's native language rather than discourage it, the transition to English fluency is easier. In this model, instruction should be split into two sections, with one part of the school day in English, the other in a different language. Say, Spanish. For it to work properly, the teacher(s) must be fluent in both languages.

In a version of this model, often called dual immersion, half the kids are Spanish-dominant, the other half English-dominant. This allows children not just to learn from How We Teach English Learners: 3 Basic Approaches : NPR Ed : NPR:

 

Charter schools facing state crackdown

Charter schools facing state crackdown:

Charter schools facing state crackdown

Big changes could be coming to a charter school near you.

The Ohio Department of Education on Oct. 13 released report cards for the state-mandated sponsors that oversee academic results, legal compliance and overall quality of charter schools — and the results are not good.

More than 32 percent of sponsors in the state got “poor” grades and could lose their authority to sponsor charter schools in the state, while 60 percent of sponsors got an “ineffective” rating, precluding them from taking on any more charter schools. Just 7.7 percent of sponsors in the state received an effective rating, and none got the highest mark of “exemplary.”

All of the charter school sponsors in Marion County received “ineffective” evaluations. They are: Marion City Schools, Pleasant Local Schools, Ridgedale Local Schools and Tri-Rivers Schools.

The ratings are important because charter schools in Ohio aren’t allowed to operate without a sponsor, which typically is a public school district. That means charter schools under poorly rated sponsors that get shut down could be forced to be sponsored by the state, which has a track record of closing schools that have poor academic report cards.

Schools under “ineffective” sponsors aren’t out of the woods either. Such sponsors also face closure if an ineffective grade is received for three years in a row. That has led those sponsors to begin changes to conform to new requirements that many don’t agree with.

“This actually pulls us away from our mission to serve our students,” Zanesville City Schools Superintendent Doug Baker said. “Now we will be pulling people away from that direct contact with students to do paperwork.”

Sponsors rated “ineffective” also will be under more pressure to close or improve charter schools with poor academic marks in an effort to raise sponsor evaluation scores, said Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education, which advocates for the charter school industry in the state.

“The system set up really is a punishment system of intimidation or extortion,” Adler said. “They are telling sponsors that if you do not score high, even though we know we’re using faulty data to measure you, then you have to close your schools or we’ll close you.”

Tighter oversight of charter school sponsors began with House Bill 2, which went into effect in February and expanded the grading system and put new penalties in place for sponsors with subpar evaluations.

“The recent community school reform legislation and the work of our independent panel helped to create one of the most transparent and comprehensive processes for sponsor evaluations in the country,” Ohio schools superintendent Paolo DeMaria said in a media release. “This will ultimately lead to improved quality school options for Ohio’s students.”

Reforms of the charter school system in Ohio have been fraught with controversy, including a 2015 evaluation of school sponsors that was tossed out after it was found Charter schools facing state crackdown:

Big Education Ape: Ohio Fails to Move Forward to Oversee Charter School Sponsors | janresseger - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/02/ohio-fails-to-move-forward-to-oversee.html