Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Biggest Obstacle to Ohio Charter Reform in Two Charts

Yes, there is hope that Ohio will finally get its act together and clean up our charter school laws. However, here are two charts that suggest it's going to be harder than having a few influential people say the right things.



What do you notice about the patterns between state money going to charter school operators and their campaign contributions? That's right. The pattern is strikingly similar. The more state money goes to these big operators, the more campaign contributions politicians receive.

Over at www.KnowYourCharter.com, we just did a report that outlines the issues here, as well as delineating some examples in the recent past of these big contributors getting what they want. We must remain vigilant and look out for any exemptions, grandfathering or delays in implementation of these new charter reforms, whatever they look like. They must apply to all charters, operators and sponsors. Now. And without exception. 

We've had charters for 16 years. And some of the schools run by these two operators have been around for more than a decade, mostly failing kids while forcing districts across the state to subsidize their operations with locally raised tax dollars. Why would we give them another 5 years to keep failing? 

One answer may be found in the first chart above. Let's hope it's not. For our kids' sake.