OHIO CHARTER SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT PARTNERS PRAISE LAWMAKERS FOR PASSING CHARTER SCHOOL REFORMS AND LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING ON OTHER NEEDED CHANGES 

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Education Association, Innovation Ohio and Progress Ohio said today they welcome the passage of HB 2 as an important first step in overhauling Ohio’s troubled charter schools. The organizations are partners in the Ohio Charter School Accountability Project which was launched a year ago to draw attention to the sorry performance of so many charter schools and which helped to make the case for needed reforms.

“We applaud state lawmakers for taking action at long last to improve the oversight and accountability of Ohio’s charter schools,” said Ohio Education Association President Becky Higgins.  “With the enactment of stronger laws, the burden will now fall on the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to make sure sponsors and operators of charter schools fulfill their mission and provide positive educational outcomes for Ohio’s students.” 

 “State leaders from both parties deserve our recognition for finally implementing some reasonable reforms that will improve educational standards in Ohio,” said Innovation Ohio President and CEO Keary McCarthy. “While House Bill 2 is a very important step forward, we must continue to make sure that our schools have the resources they need to give every Ohio student a high quality education.”

“It has been a longtime coming, but with passage of House Bill 2 Ohio will finally implement some meaningful improvements to Ohio’s broken charter school laws,” said ProgressOhio Executive Director Sandy Theis.  “These reforms are intended to ensure that bad charters and sponsors don’t abuse the system, but in order for this law to have an impact, it must be properly implemented and vigorously enforced by the Ohio Department of Education.”

As leaders in both chambers of the General Assembly have recently acknowledged, there are significant issues with the current funding system that forces local school districts to use local revenues to subsidize the cost of students who transfer to charter schools. This adds to the already significant education funding burden that local taxpayers must bear. In addition, ODE has acknowledged there is a problem with students having more than one identification number if they attend a charter school, which opens the door to potential fraud and abuse. The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project partners look forward to working with House and Senate lawmakers to address these issues.

In October of 2014, the Ohio Charter School Accountability Project launched KnowYourCharter.com which allows teachers, parents, educators and policymakers to compare the performance of charter schools with that of local public schools. The website also shows the financial impact on local school districts of students who chose to transfer to a charter school. 

The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project is a joint venture of the Ohio Education Association and Innovation Ohio. The Ohio Education Association represents more than 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities. Innovation Ohio is a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus. ProgressOhio is a grassroots organization that fights for progressive change and has supplemented the work of the Ohio Charter Accountability Project with research into charter schools abuses.

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