The for-profit companies that run many of Ohio’s charter schools would face increased scrutiny under the latest charter school reform proposal from State Sen. Peggy Lehner, as would the organizations that help create the schools and oversee them.
Lehner and an advisory panel unveiled their proposed charter school bill Wednesday morning, making it the third major proposal this year to improve Ohio’s charter school system that regularly performs worse than traditional district schools statewide.
It’s a major issue, with nearly $1 billion in state tax dollars going to the privately-run – but public – schools, and Ohio being laughed at as the “Wild, Wild West” by the nationwide charter school movement.
Charter schools can be examples of exceptional education, Lehner said, as are many of the charters in Ohio and many charter schools in other parts of the country.
But Ohio has been “extremely loose” in its rules about who can run schools, she said, and “failed to put up the sort of guardrails” that force the schools to be of high quality.
“The question isn’t what’s wrong with charter schools, per se, but why have Ohio charter schools not achieved similar success (to some other states)?” Lehner said.
Already this year, Gov. John Kasich proposed his own charter school reform plan and the Ohio House recently passed its own plan in House Bill 2. Lehner’s new bill takes many pieces of those and adds additional controls – and benefits – to charters.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online News
