Results missing; so is the money

Results missing; so is the money

Revelations by the auditor of state’s office regarding the undocumented expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds at Legacy Academy for Leaders and the Arts in Youngstown once again point up what should be viewed as a fatal flaw in Ohio’s charter school experiment.

Charter schools, or as they are called in Ohio, community schools, have been operating with inadequate oversight of the money they spend or the academic results they produce.

These schools were billed as free-market examples of excellence that would force competing public schools to do better. Absent evidence of such success, the Legislature has continue to shift millions of dollars to expand the reach of community schools and — in many cases — the for-profit companies that own or manage them.

Growing like Topsy

A $51 million experiment in 2001 has ballooned to more than $700 million. The Republican General Assembly and Gov. John Kasich are wont to require that charters operate at a level of efficiency that Republicans like to demand of others when public money is expended.

State Auditor David Yost, a Republican, is doing his job in auditing the books and doing the public a service in being candid about his findings. In announcing more than $352,000 in findings for recovery against Legacy Academy, which was operated at Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church, Yost said he’s “seen better documentation at a lemonade stand.”

The Legislature should put the brakes on the charter experiment until it starts paying dividends beyond the campaign donations legislators have been raking in from charter supporters.