OHIO Public vs. charter schools: Tacks vary

Districts try to compete while fighting the system.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Public school leaders are taking out their frustration on charter schools by trying to both beat them and join them.
In the same week that Ohio's largest teachers union sued in federal court to challenge the constitutionality of the way charter schools are funded, the state's second-largest school district expressed its interest in running one of the state's first charter colleges.
About 35 of the state's 613 school districts have opened their own charter schools, most of them Internet-based high schools that compete with online charters run by independent groups. Meanwhile, a coalition of districts and unions has a pending lawsuit in state court to end the charter school system.
Educators say the approaches don't conflict.
"It's a position we've been consistent about from the beginning," said Neil Quirk, a teacher and president of the board at Akron Digital Academy, an online charter sponsored by city schools that just completed its first full academic year.
"We don't agree with the legislation that has permitted this to happen," Quirk said. "Our efforts to fight that have been unsuccessful. It's been kind of a 'If you can't beat them join them' situation -- with the hope that in joining them we will beat them."
A better way
That's a better strategy than the lawsuits, said Tom Sutton, a Baldwin-Wallace College political science professor who studies Ohio's school funding debate.
"I don't think challenging the state on the way it's funding charter schools legally is going to go anywhere," he said. "Don't try to change the system, but rather use it to your own advantage.
"If more urban districts do this and create better programming, then we've achieved our goal, which is getting the kids a better education."
Private companies running charters welcome any competition, which makes them better, said Stephen Ramsey, president of the Ohio Charter Schools Association.
"We look at the momentum toward offering real choice to parents as a positive move, whether a school district does it or an independent organization," he said.
Ramsey said he couldn't guess the motives for districts that sponsor charters, but said he hopes they're doing it for the right reasons and not to "suck resources away from independent operators."
Ohio's charter schools
Lawmakers created charter schools in 1997 as an alternative to traditional public schools. The state now has 179 charter elementary, middle and high schools that are publicly funded, but privately run and operate free from many state regulations.
The Ohio Department of Education wants to create at least two charter colleges to accelerate teacher training. Columbus Public Schools is among 29 colleges, school districts and groups that expressed interest and would have to submit a formal application by today.
The city district also said last week that it would create its own online program for about 120 high school students this fall. It would not be created as a charter school, but the idea arose from a committee studying how to slow the loss of district students to charters.
The Ohio Education Association sued in U.S. District Court in Dayton last week on behalf of students and parents in the city. The lawsuit said charter schools violate the U.S. Constitution by targeting urban districts with large minority populations and then unfairly taking state money from students there in traditional public schools.
"It's necessary to deal with this fight on more than one front," said Tom Mooney, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, a union that's part of the state lawsuit but not the federal one. "There's nothing contradictory about trying to compete with them while challenging the design flaws in the overall program."