I don’t ordinarily venture into education issues but the charter school situation in Ohio has now attracted ProPublica’s attention, so hopefully it will (eventually) be national news, and you-all will have a head start.
First, the excellent ProPublica piece:
Since 2008, an Ohio-based company, White Hat Management, has collected around $230 million to run charter schools in that state. The company has grown into a national chain and reports that it has about 20,000 students across the country. But now 10 of its own schools and the state of Ohio are suing, complaining that many White Hat students are failing, and that the company has refused to account for how it has spent the money. The dispute between White Hat and Ohio, which is unfolding in state court in Franklin County, provides a glimpse at a larger trend: the growing role of private management companies in publicly funded charter schools.
Government data suggest that schools with for-profit managers have somewhat worse academic results than charters without management companies, and a number of boards have clashed with managers over a lack of transparency in how they are using public funds.
Naturally, given this new information, Ohio Republicans are reducing oversight of Ohio charter schools. Here’s the proposed changes to state law from the GOP majority in the Ohio statehouse:
Empowers for-profit corporations to start up and run charter schools – without the oversight of a sponsor, which is required for all charter schools now.
Permits a charter school’s board to give up all its rights and responsibilities to a for-profit or nonprofit operator, who would employ the teachers and other staffers.
This change is important, because this is the current state of Ohio law on charter schools:
“Public bodies cannot delegate the authority to make discretionary decisions without statutory authorization, community schools are public bodies, their discretionary decisions are to be made by their governing authorities, and no statute authorizes the delegation of that authority,”
But, it gets worse:
Provides that once taxpayer money is given to a charter school operator, it is no longer considered public money and anything the operator buys with it becomes the operator’s property.
Wow. Just wow. That’s some deal. Public funds purchase property, but private for-profit entity then magically becomes sole owner.
Do people know that for-profit management companies are running “public” charter schools? Do people know that conservatives in Ohio are seeking statutory authority to convert public funds that go to charter schools into the private property of for-profit entities like White Hat Management? You know, considering that we just came off another media-promoted blitz of public school/public employee bashing, it’s interesting that no one was looking into for-profit charter school operators, particularly since there is a live lawsuit in Ohio, right now, on this issue.
For-Profit Schools: Not just for college-age students anymorePost + Comments (53)