Another bill offered to revamp Ohio's charter schools

COLUMBUS — The head of the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee unveiled a comprehensive charter school reform package today that backers believe will help weed out poor-performing charters while attracting and expanding high-performing ones.

Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said the legislation calls for increased disclosure of how charter schools operate and additional scrutiny of their effectiveness in serving students.

The state’s laws on charters have been “extremely loose as to who could sponsor schools, who could govern them and who would operate them,” Lehner said in describing the need for charter reform.

“Out of the desire to provide as much room for innovation and experimentation, we failed to put up the sort of guardrails that would assure responsible governance and a transparent and accountable system,” she said.

The new bill includes numerous other charter reforms such as allowing higher-performing charters and public schools to enter lease agreements; potentially sharing space and state formula funding; requiring background checks for charter employees and barring the hiring of those convicted of certain crimes; and limiting compensation for charter governing authority members to $125 per meeting, the same as public school boards.