Sunday, September 23, 2007
DAYTON (AP) — Ohio’s attorney general has sued to shut down a tax-funded, privately operated charter school where students have underperformed, the third such lawsuit he’s filed against a Dayton charter school this month.
Attorney General Marc Dann said in the latest suit, filed Friday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, that the Moraine Community School has failed in its mission as a charitable trust to properly educate pupils.
Moraine has met only three of 32 state performance standards, but has received nearly $6 million in state funding since it opened five years ago.
“By any measure, this school, like those we filed suit against last week, is an utter failure,” Dann said.
On Sept. 12, Dann filed suit against New Choices Community School and the Colin Powell Leadership Academy, both of Dayton.
The schools have received more than $17 million in state money combined, but have met almost none of the state’s academic benchmarks during six years of operation. Dann argued in the lawsuits that the schools were not meeting their obligations for receiving taxpayer money
Earlier this year, the Legislature passed two laws regarding the academic and financial performance of charter schools. But Dann’s office has said that measures included in the laws would take too long to hold the schools accountable.