Charter schools ‘experiment’ got away from its creators

When Ohioans were first sold the bill of goods that charter schools — many of them operated on a for-profit basis — were a vehicle that would provide higher quality education to students and some needed competition for under-achieving public schools, the plan was presented as an experiment.

Logic would dictate that until the results of such an experiment became apparent, the program wouldn’t be expanded, and it would be expanded only if there was some indication that the experiment was a success.

And yet, for nearly a decade, Ohio legislators took every chance they got to pour more money into expanding charter schools — or community schools as they are called in the state. Today there are more than 300 charter schools in Ohio with an enrollment of nearly 90,000 students. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been diverted from public schools to community schools in an experiment that seemingly has no end in sight.

In 2007, in the face of clear evidence that most charter schools were performing no better than their public school counterparts and often worse, and under pressure from Gov. Ted Strickland and then-Atty. Gen. Marc Dann, the legislature agreed to a moratorium on charter schools. This came at time when 57 percent of the state’s charter schools were in academic watch or emergency, compared to 43 percent of traditional public schools in Ohio’s large counties.

In the state’s 2008 report card, of 17 charter schools in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, one was unrated, one showed continuous improvement and the other 15 were in academic watch or academic emergency. That means 94 percent of the schools here are functioning at the two lowest levels of performance.

And against numbers such as those, State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, wants to lift the moratorium on new charter schools, claiming such a move would make Ohio more competitive in its bids for federal Race to the Top education grants.

The governor and the legislature should resist pressure from Husted and the powerful (and generous) charter school lobby until there is more evidence that charter schools are doing what they are supposed to do: provide a higher quality education than students can get in their public schools.

2009 report cards

Next week, we’ll get evidence of whether that is happening when the 2009 state report cards for public and community schools are released.

We would be surprised if those report cards show charter schools are performing any better than they have for years.

The General Assembly cobbled together its community school program on more of a political foundation than an educational one, and Ohio’s schools and students continue to pay for that short-sightedness.

The law began as a “pilot” that allowed the Lucas County Educational Service Center — what used to be called the county board of education — to establish a maximum of 20 charter schools. The board continues to have an inordinate influence on charter school operations, granting charters far outside the Toledo area.

For instance, one of Youngstown’s charter schools, the Summit Academy Community School for Alternative Learners, was ordered closed at the end of this past school year because it had been in academic emergency for three straight years without showing improvement. But instead of closing, the school applied to its Lucas County sponsor for permission to change its description and its name, and it will actually be expanding, rather than closing.

Such a failure to oversee the charter “experiment” is exactly why the moratorium was put in place, and it is why the moratorium should remain in place until true accountability is established for all schools in the state.

At a time when another educational experiment that has shown some promise, Youngstown’s Early College is losing state funding, it borders on legislative malpractice to blindly pour money into under-performing community schools.