My School My Choice Lies Again

Well, well, well. My School, My Choice – a dodgy outfit that seeks to protect profits over kids has released a candidate questionnaire filled with lies, mistruths and frankly disturbing answers from many candidates for office. I thought I should go through and show just how dishonest this questionnaire is and why we cannot let these guys return us to the days of national ridicule for our Charter School sector, which is still not awesome, but is certainly in better shape – at least in terms of accountability – than it was when these guys ran things.

Teachers union leaders often claim that public charter schools drain funds from traditional schools.

In fact, union leaders aren’t the only ones who “claim” this. Superintendents, treasurers, non-partisan analysts, Republican Education Committee Chairs and Speakers of the House have all acknowledged this fact. The other pesky thing that gets in the way of this talking point is arithmetic. Take Columbus City Schools. According to Ohio Department of Education finance reports, the state was to send $366.5 million to Columbus to educate its 72,714 students. That’s a per pupil state funding level of $5,089.28. However, when the state then removes $161 million to pay for the 19,958 students who attend charter schools from Columbus, the remaining Columbus students are left with $3,947.51 in state aid -- $1,141.77 less than the state originally intended to go to students in Columbus – money that has to be made up with local revenue or service cuts. And Columbus is not unusual. Statewide, the average per pupil state funding loss because of the charter school deduction is $198.06, which means that statewide, $314.3 million in local revenue has to be used to make up that lost revenue to children in local public schools or services get cut. In fact, there are between 80 to 100 school districts who lose overall funding because of charter schools because they don’t raise enough local revenue to make up for their state funding losses to charters.

In fact, traditional schools have more funding now than ever, while public charter schools continue to receive less funding.

The previously described phenomenon utterly shreds this canard. The average Columbus charter school student receives $8,067.28 in state funding. The average Columbus public school student receives $3,434.85 in state funding once all the charter/voucher/ESC/open enrollment deductions are included. It is precisely because charter school students receive so much more per pupil state aid than they would have received in the local public school that has led to the Cupp Patterson school funding plan to shift to a funding system that directly pays for charter school students rather than deducting the amount from kids in local public schools.

This is especially true since local tax dollars (those collected from local levies and property taxes) don’t follow public charter school students but instead stay with the traditional school district.

This isn’t even true anymore. In Cleveland, several charter schools actually do receive a share of local revenue, which voters approved many years ago. But even setting those school aside, about 1 in 10 charters spend more per equivalent pupil than school districts, even though they do not receive direct local money. More telling is this: The average charter school spends a mere $163.14 less per pupil than districts on instruction costs. However, the average charter school spends $897.12 more per pupil on non-instructional administrative costs than the average school district. Where do school districts spend more per pupil? Staff and pupil support as well as operations (busing/HVAC/etc.). But if charters would spend the same per pupil on administration that districts did, they would be able to spend more in the classroom than the average district and also spend about the same as districts on pupil and staff support. This whole argument is simply an admission that they need more money to make up for their lack of efficiency and inability to move as much money into the classroom as school districts do. The last part of this sentence also admits that charter school funding  increases the reliance on local property taxes to pay for schools – a result the Ohio Supreme Court ruled four times was unconstitutional.

There is no such thing as a for-profit charter school in Ohio as all of our charter schools are PUBLIC schools. ALL public schools (traditional brick and mortar district schools and community schools) are allowed to, and most do, use for-profit companies to provide services like textbooks, transportation, food, curriculum, and management services. Despite this, some traditional opponents of public charter schools have tried to run-around free market principles by not allowing certain services to be provided by “for-profit” companies. In other words, they think that only some companies/organizations should be allowed to provide only some services to only some public schools.

Charter schools are non profit, and while they’re called “public” in statute, federal labor panels that have examined Ohio charter schools have consistently ruled they are actually run like private organizations. However, many hire for-profit companies to run the schools. 

This is also a completely misleading statement and runs afoul of the Republican Speaker of the House Larry Householder’s own statement from last year where he said he wanted to eliminate for-profit operators from running Ohio charter schools. Here’s what he said in late January 2019:

“One thing I believe we need to look at is what many states have done, and that is that charter schools are nonprofit in the state of Ohio,” said House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, addressing a long-standing controversy among Ohio’s school-choice system. “I know they are technically nonprofit, but that second tier, those management entities, I believe should be nonprofit.”

This coming from a politician who famously had to return a significant chunk of money from disgraced for-profit operator Bill Lager of the notorious ECOT online charter school. So he hasn’t hated taking for-profit charter school money. Yet now he sees it as a serious problem. He’s hardly a left wingnut. 

The question is preposterous as well. No one is saying that a school can’t buy books from a for-profit entity. What they’re saying is that for-profit companies should not be deciding how the school is run, who gets hired, who gets fired, how much to pay for leases, etc.

In the past, some have tried to balance state budgets by proposing unfair cuts for public charter school students (like during Governor Strickland’s term, when he was forced to abandon his plans, following a My School My Choice Statehouse Rally, where 4,500 school choice supporters raised their voices against such biased cuts). With difficult budgets always looming, there is concern that state legislators would consider funding public charter school students at a level less than traditional public school students as a way to decrease state spending for primary and secondary education.

This too is a lie. I know because I’m the one who restored the eSchool funding in the 2009 budget. I didn’t do it because of My School, My Choice’s rally. I did it because the Republican Senate made it clear that if they didn’t get their funding restored, the Senate wouldn’t approve a new school funding system that promised $3 billion more for Ohio’s public school students over the next 10 years. Remember this was during the Great Recession, so any potential funding delay could have been economically disastrous. What thanks did My School, My Choice give me for restoring their funding? They stalked my kids at school and my family throughout my community. It was so bad that other for-profit charter operators called and apologized for My School, My Choice’s behavior.

Ohio’s public online schools are being held accountable; the closure of some schools is proof of that. Despite that, traditional opponents of school choice, like teachers unions and some on the far-left, seek to impose new standards on public online schools different from those used to measure other public schools.

This too is a lie. The provision that required new standards for eSchools was first passed in 2003 by a Republican legislature and governor. But those standards were never adopted by the legislature. The current Republican legislature and governor also set up a task force to figure out how to hold eSchools accountable. What these guys at My School, My Choice won’t acknowledge is for-profit operators and eSchools are on the outs … with the charter school community. Why? Because they are such a performance drag on the entire charter school sector. Ohio’s eSchools are notoriously poor performing. The Ohio Virtual Academy, which was initially run by Ron Packard – the same guy who set up My School, My Choice – can’t get their diplomas accepted by the NCAA. Packard’s new school, OHDELA, has historically been the worst performing online school in the state – even worse than the notorious ECOT. The reason conservative Republican legislators want to reign in eSchools is because they have been a blight and embarrassment to the Ohio school choice community. And while left-leaning folks want that increased accountability too, it is a broad, bipartisan belief that eSchools are tremendously failing kids throughout the state. For example, while only 9 percent of Ohio charter school graduates go on to graduate from college within 6 years of high school (compared with 32.5 percent of public high school graduates), only 6 percent of Packard’s students do – a worse percentage than any major urban school district in the state, even though Packard’s students come from all over the state. A mind-shuddering 25 of 400 eligible 2012 graduates from Packard’s online operation have a college degree today. That’s why conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and nearly every other Ohioan wants tighter standards on these guys.

Here’s the thing, though. While every Democrat who answered this questionnaire disagreed with My School, My Choice’s falsehoods, all the Republicans agreed! That means they are utterly denying what their own House Speaker and other folks agree needs to be done on charters and online charters in particular. That’s why this questionnaire is revealing. And while there have been many victories for students and taxpayers on the charter school issue over the last 5-7 years, much work remains needed to keep the guys who want to make money off our kids from ruining all the progress this state has made. It wasn’t that long ago we were considered the Wild, Wild West of charter schools. And while we’re certainly not at the cutting edge, My School, My Choice seems bent on returning us to the days of embarrassing headlines and putrid reputations for this state’s. They must not succeed for our kids’ sake.

Ron Packard: The New David Brennan

Not many people paid much attention to the passing of the torch, but when Ron Packard -- the infamous former owner of the oft-maligned K12, Inc. (whose diplomas aren't accepted by the NCAA) -- started buying up David Brennan's former White Hat Management empire in 2015, it didn't mark the end of an era.

It marked its continuation. (Except for the massive political contributions -- for now.)

A little background. Packard founded K12, Inc. and was paid millions to run the only school operation ever sold on the New York Stock Exchange -- a notoriously poor-performing online charter school operation that at the time of his departure was the nation's largest. Now he runs the Accel Schools chain in Ohio, which according to the latest data from the Ohio Department of Education operates 37 Ohio charter schools.

Tellingly, Accel started barely a handful of these schools. Nearly all were snatched up from mostly White Hat Management, including OHDELA -- long the cash cow of the White Hat operation, along with the dropout recovery Life Skills operation. And while Packard portrays himself as a turnaround guy, what he really seems to be is the education sector's Gordon Gecko -- an education corporate raider.

Accel recently took another page out of White Hat (which has dissolved into several small operations that run one or two Life Skills schools) and started splitting off some of its schools. Instead of operating all 37 under the single Accel Schools umbrella, now Accel schools in Akron, Canton, Columbus and Cleveland are run by splinter Accel Schools operators. 

Why would Packard do this?

Perhaps to boost the academic rating of the Accel Schools umbrella brand? 

See, prior to the splintering, Accel rated a D as a charter school operator, according to the state. This year, with those schools now run by "different" operators, the ones remaining under the umbrella Accel Schools operation got a C.

That's a higher grade than the D received each of the last three years by the revered Breakthrough Schools in Cleveland (a result I will examine more closely in a future post).

But see, here's the thing. In a recent story about how Ohio Charter Schools want a 22% raise from the state, Packard is quoted as saying, 

"Brick and mortar schools are a very low margin business."

This is what happens when you say you want to run schools like a business. You get guys talking about profit margins in education like they're restaurants or something.

But aside from that, this quote is straight Brennan. Remember K12, Inc.? The nation's largest online charter school operator that Packard founded and ran for many years?

Guess which state propped up his national operation? If you said, "Ohio", you'd be half right. Between Ohio and Pennsylvania's generosity with their taxpayers' money, Packard consistently reported to the SEC that about 1/4 of his company's total revenue came from those two states.

As he reported in his annual 10-K from 2012 (and other years around that time):

"In fiscal year 2012, we derived approximately 12% and 13% of our revenues, respectively, from the Ohio Virtual Academy and the Agora Cyber Charter School in Pennsylvania. In aggregate, these schools accounted for approximately 25% of our total revenues. If our contracts with either of these virtual public schools are terminated, the charters to operate either of these schools are not renewed or are revoked, enrollments decline substantially, funding is reduced, or more restrictive legislation is enacted, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected."

He knows that in Ohio, there is a TON of profit to be made in the online charter school sector. In fact, there's enough for Ohio taxpayers to essentially subsidize an entire national operation.

Which is why he felt the need to qualify his "low margin business" quote to the PD to just the brick and mortar sector. And why he probably leaped at the chance to grab OHDELA from Brennan's fire sale.

But see, here's the problem. Brick and Mortar schools are not a very low margin business. We are told, even by charter school proponents, that they are a "non-profit" business. In fact, all charters are considered "non-profit" by the state.

Except the schools can hire sharks like Packard to run their operations. And Packard is allowed to make a profit. This profiteering hasn't led to billion dollar scandals or anything, has it?

Wait. Perhaps it has. 

Which is why Packard's growth and increased voice in Ohio should worry Ohio taxpayers who have been burned by 20 years of charter school profiteering.

This is why I'm so encouraged by House Speaker Larry Householder saying a few weeks ago that "those management entities, I believe should be nonprofit."

Not low profit margins. No profit margins.

Amen, brother. Amen.

Trump Makes Point that Charters are Better Options by Visiting Poor Performer

Donald Trump has told the African-American community that "your schools are a disaster", so he has said Charter Schools are the answer. He's trying to demonstrate that today when he visits the Cleveland Arts & Social Sciences Academy in Cleveland.

Here's the thing. The school Trump is visiting received an F on the state report card for student growth -- the most important measure to most charter school advocates. Cleveland -- an urban district Trump has derided collectively -- received a C on the same measure. Visit www.KnowYourCharter.com to find all of the school's performance metrics.

Oh, and the state pays the charter school more money per pupil than Cleveland ... for worse student growth measures.

What's sad is that Cleveland is the only place in Ohio where a case can credibly be made that charters are in any significant way living up to their promise. The Breakthrough Schools and ICAN schools are performing very well. As charter school advocates have noted, that's in stark contrast to the rest of Ohio where 40% of its charter schools are in "urgent need of improvement."

So why would Trump visit a school with an F in the most important performance metric when he had plenty of much higher performing options? Perhaps it's because the school he's visiting is run by a for-profit company called Accel Schools Ohio. Accel is an imprint of Pansophic -- a charter school firm started by K12, Inc. founder Ron Packard. Packard has an infamous reputation for political gamesmanship.

If I wanted to make the point that charters can give kids hope where none before existed, I wouldn't go visit an Accel School. I'd visit a Breakthrough or ICAN school. However, if I wanted to make hay with a potential political contributor with experience in education politics, I would visit Ron Packard's school.

However, this choice doesn't surprise me given Mr. Trump's clear ignorance of the state of education policy.

White Hat Sale Proves Ohio Charter Regime Failing

Finally.

Now we know what White Hat Management is all about. There was always a pretty strong indication that White Hat was about making money, not educating children.

After all, when you get exactly 1 A on a state report card and have 72 opportunities to get an A, you're probably not in the game for the same reasons most educators are.

When you've collected more than $1 billion in taxpayer money without having to make a single appearance before a legislative committee, as White Hat founder David Brennan has been able to do, you're probably not in the game for the same reasons most educators are.

When you contribute more than $4 million to politicians, you're probably not in the game for the same reasons most educators are.

But then we got the news last week that Brennan's White Hat Management was going to sell off their least profitable, "highest performing", and most at-risk for closure schools to a group run by K12, Inc.'s founder Ron Packard. That's right, the same guy who gave us the Ohio Virtual Academy and all its "success."

But White Hat will keep its cash cow online school, OHDELA, which has the worst performance index score of any statewide E-School -- and that's saying something, given how abjectly horrible Ohio's statewide E-Schools perform. Its performance index score actually dropped more than 4% from four years ago, the only statewide E-School to see such a precipitous drop. Again, that's saying something.

It will also keep its other bloated carcass -- Life Skills -- which proudly graduated 2 out of 155 students in one of its locations last year. But don't worry, the state won't ever be able to close these schools because Brennan had the legislature essentially create an exemption for his atrociously performing schools.

So White Hat is now able to sit back and rake in the money from its online operation (the state pays OHDELA enough that the school could provide 15:1 student-teacher ratios, $2,000 laptops to every child every year and still clear 34.5%), while continuously milk Ohio taxpayers through the perpetually operating Life Skills schools, which will never be able to be closed even though no one in their right mind would possibly think that graduating 2 out of 155 children is, in any way, serving our communities' most at-risk children.

Why am I cynical about this sale? Well, look at the reasons White Hat has had schools close. The only ones to ever close because of the state's closure law were the Hope Academies (now called simply the Academies). Five of those schools have closed overall (then re-opened under different names). Only one Life Skills has ever closed, and that was for slipping enrollment, which means the school wasn't hitting their profit margin. This relative instability in the Academies led to this sale, not any other reason.

What's so ironic is the Academies are White Hat's best performing schools. Again, a little perspective is helpful. When your other schools don't get As or Bs on the state report card and graduate as few as 2 out of 155 students, that's not a very high bar. But the 1 A and 5 Bs White Hat schools earned on the state report card last year came out of the Academies. So the company is dumping its "highest performing schools" so it can keep their worst performing schools because they don't really have to worry about closing.

Is there a greater indictment of the state's charter school regime, by the way, then saying it makes business sense to keep your worst schools because at least they'll stay open?

Obviously, the greatest danger to White Hat's bottom line is a strong state school closure law. Even this state's pretty weak one (only 24 of the 571 schools that have opened in Ohio have ever been closed under that statute) has nailed a few White Hat schools.

So this sale will minimize any instability in the White Hat portfolio. They will just sit on their remaining, horrible educational options, collect their millions from us taxpayers, and enjoy their lives.

If only the children they refuse to serve could too.

I know it was automatically generated, but I found meaning in the fact that the link to the Cleveland Plain Dealer story about the White Hat sale ended in "opera" (short for operation) because that's exactly what the Ohio White Hat story has been -- a Wagnerian, tragic, endless tale of cursed gold, hopelessly flawed, even evil gods, and fallen heroes. Only this isn't an opera. It's kids lives -- lives that have been sacrificed so one man's epic quest for gold can continue.

Where is our kids' Brunnhilde? We need her to brave the flames. Now.