Report: Program fails to deliver

A statewide teachers union wants such schools to be held accountable.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN --A report by a statewide teachers union on Ohio's charter school program says that the schools have failed to demonstrate the academic success they promised.
The Ohio Education Association report, using Ohio Department of Education records, says that, though the number of charter schools is growing, the original promises of academic achievement remain substantially unfulfilled.
Comparisons of Adequate Yearly Progress reports by the department show that traditional public schools met the federal educational standards three times as often as charter schools, the teachers union report says.
The Legislature should cap the number of charter schools and impose accountability on them, forcing them to meet the same standards as public schools, said Gary L. Allen, OEA president.
Those that don't measure up should be closed, he said, noting there is pending legislation dealing with those issues.
The state also included some language on academic performance and reporting by charter schools in the new budget bill that takes effect in 2006.
It's a "three strikes and you're out" arrangement, said J.C. Benton, a Department of Education spokesman. If charter schools fail to produce academic improvement, they risk losing their funding and their charters, he said.
Dann's views
Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty, D-32nd, thinks charter schools should meet the same accountability requirements as public schools. For years, the state has funded charter schools without requiring performance audits and reports, he said, noting the state has learned that private, for-profit charter schools are performing worse that the worst public schools on standardized tests.
Ohio should stop funding those schools that aren't producing and put that money back into the public schools, Dann said.
Anita Nelam, chairwoman of the defunct Ohio Charter School Association and vice chairwoman of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said she hasn't seen the OEA report but pointed out that the Ohio charter movement has been up-front about quality issues from the beginning.
Those issues are being addressed, she said, explaining that most Ohio charter schools are less than two years old and it takes time to produce positive academic results.
Charter schools primarily get children who are not performing well in public schools and it takes a couple of years to get them back on track, Nelam said.
More on the report
The OEA report says the state has poured about $1.2 billion into charter school financing since the program was launched in 1997, money that would have gone into the public schools. That loss of revenue has exacerbated the state's public education financial crisis, according to the report.
There were just 15 charter schools with 2,200 pupils in 1998-99, and now there are 250 schools with more than 62,000 pupils. The Big 8 school districts in Ohio, which include Youngstown, have lost 13 percent of their pupil population, about 39,000 kids, to charter schools, the report says, noting that Youngstown lost 2,308 pupils, about 20 percent of its population.
The state's local Report Card program shows that traditional public schools outperform charter schools in math, reading, citizenship, writing and science at the fourth- sixth- and 10th-grade levels, according to the union's report.
This year, however, public schools will get just $3,210 per pupil in state funding while charter schools will get $6,762, the report said.
Nelam said it's unfortunate that the OEA union has chosen not to work with charter schools on improving the education of children and instead uses data that supports its position to attack charter schools.
Charter schools and parent choice aren't going to go away, she said, adding that a new statewide charter school support organization is now forming to succeed the OCSA.
The OEA report says that the public must decide if the state charter school program "is one of promise or illusion."
The public ought to be appalled at what the state is putting into these schools without getting the promised results, Allen said.