Ohio Charter Schools Failing, Failing, Failing
The unfolding events involving Ohio charter (community) schools made the front page of the New York Times a few days ago. Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann filed suit against three low-performing charter schools earlier in the fall, citing their collective failure(s) as charitable trusts. The suit was filed in the home county of Ohio’s Speaker of the House Jon Husted, a voucher and charter school advocate. Husted bristled at the suits, saying:
“This is like suing the American Cancer Society just because they haven’t yet cured cancer,”
Terry Ryan, a Vice President of the charter-school sponsoring organization and think-tank Thomas B. Fordham Foundation was also quoted, saying:
“These suits are the latest in a long line of Democratic assaults on the charter school program in Ohio,”
Despite the fact that a higher percentage of Ohio charter schools are in state-designated Academic Watch or Academic Emergency categories than true public schools, edu-wonks and policy makers are still finding reasons to laud the movement as successful. Read the entire article here.