Schiavoni bill would restrict advertising

By Bill Bush

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

How much tax money should the state allow charter schools to spend on advertising to attract students?

None, says a Boardman lawmaker, who has introduced a bill in the state Senate banning charters from using tax dollars to advertise.

“If you want to promote your charter school, then raise the revenue in order to do so,” said state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, a Democrat from Boardman who also serves as Senate minority leader.

“But using taxpayer dollars from taxpayers that may not even be in that specific district? I think that may be a problem,” he said.

Charter-school supporters say that advertising is a necessary part of the school-choice system because it tells parents about the options available to them. It's no different from public universities that advertise to recruit students, said Darlene Chambers, president and CEO of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Barring charters from advertising leaves parents in the dark, without the knowledge that there are alternatives to failing district schools, Chambers said.

“I believe in an informed constituency. I believe in informed parents,” Chambers said. “To make an informed choice, you've got to have information.”

The online Ohio charter Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, spent at least $2.27 million of state education tax money last school year on advertising to attract students, or about $155 for each student who enrolled that year.

Most of ECOT's visible ad spending was on radio and television, but it also included ads on Facebook, Google and in mailing lists.

ECOT officials say they typically budget about 2 percent of the school's revenue on ads.

Schiavoni said that his legislation would level the playing field with traditional public schools “that are currently prohibited from using state funds on advertising,” although that appears to be incorrect. District schools do spend tax money on advertising, just not nearly as much as charters do per student.

Hundreds of Ohio charter schools spent a total of at least $5.6 million of tax money on advertising last school year, The Dispatch reported in March. That was almost double what traditional school districts spent, even though charters serve just 7 percent of the state's public-school students.

Schiavoni said his legislation is in response to a radio ad campaign launched by some charter schools to change the evaluation process for state report cards “so they can avoid bad grades.”