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Officials target charter schools with low ranks
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
School officials from Northeast Ohio urged lawmakers Tuesday to change state law to block parents from enrolling their children in poor-performing charter schools.
They’re backing Senate Bill 175, sponsored by Sen. Joe Schiavoni, a Democrat from Canfield. The bill would block students from enrolling in community schools in areas where public schools have earned higher rankings on state report cards.
The legislation includes a couple of exceptions — disabled students could still seek out charter options, and principals of affected public schools could grant permission for enrollment changes.
Supporters of the bill, including several representatives of the Boardman Local School District in Mahoning County, said charter schools are draining money from public school coffers and hurting educational programs for other students.
The fact that some charters earn lower marks on state report cards adds insult to injury, they said.
“It is like giving raises to the very worst employees and using the salaries of the best employees to pay for it,” David Pavlansky, an English teacher from Boardman High School, told the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee on Tuesday.
“Under this system, we not only reward poor performance, but we monetarily punish excellent schools to the point that their capacity to perform is diminished. At this rate, we will bankrupt public schools which excel in order to enrich charter schools that do not.”
Boardman Superintendent Frank Lazzeri told senators that his district lost more than $800,000 to underperforming community schools last year.
“Since the inception of community schools, our district has lost over $6.1 million of funding to poor-performing community schools,” Lazzeri said. “That money could have been used to reduce class size, upgrade buildings, maintain programs, purchase new computers and technology, which are old and in need of repair, or even build a new football/soccer stadium.”
Steve Dyer, a former state lawmaker from the Akron area who was actively involved in education reform passed under former Gov. Ted Strickland, said Senate Bill 175 would provide an incentive for charter schools to improve, knowing that they could lose students and funding if they don’t.
Tuesday’s committee hearing was the second for Senate Bill 175 and featured testimony from proponents of the legislation.
Comments from opponents will be scheduled for a later date, though Republican members voiced concern about the legislation Tuesday.
“I’ve always been taught and my life experience is each child is an individual, and what works best for each child is different,” said Sen. Bill Coley, a Republican from southwestern Ohio.
“But this bill takes away a parent’s ability to decide what’s the best for that individual child.”