Ohio online charter school continues to mislead the public; results are dismal

Ohio online charter school continues to mislead the public; results are dismal

In a letter published Sept. 4 in The Vindicator, the superintendent of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow tried to gloss over the online charter school’s dismal graduation rate. Because the letter contained several misleading statements, I feel compelled to set the record straight.

Here are the facts about ECOT. Only 38.8 percent of ECOT’s students graduate after four years and just 44.1 percent after five years. By comparison, the Youngstown City School District, which was said to be performing so poorly that Gov. Kasich took it over last year, has a 67.8 percent four-year graduation rate and 77.9 percent for five years.

In addition, a recent investigation by the New York Times found “more students drop out of [ECOT] or fail to finish high school within four years than at any other school in the country, according to federal data.”

ECOT’s superintendent also brags in his letter that his school educates students for less money than the Youngstown schools. That’s hardly a surprise when you consider ECOT, as an online school, does not have school buildings or buses.

There is growing evidence that Ohio taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth from the approximately $100 million that ECOT receives on a yearly basis. During an initial attendance audit, the Ohio Department of Education discovered that most of the ECOT students they checked had logged into classes for just one hour per day. That’s far below the standard of five hours per day. If a full audit finds similar attendance numbers, ECOT would have to repay tens of millions of dollars to the state.

It is disappointing that ECOT continues to mislead taxpayers the same way it misleads parents and students about its poor academic performance. It has become abundantly clear that the charter school, run by a for-profit management company, will say and do anything to keep tax dollars flowing into its bank accounts.

State Sen. Joe Schiavoni, Boardman

Schiavoni, a Democrat, represents the 33rd state Senate District and serves as Senate minority leader in the Ohio General Assembly.

Anger toward Mill Creek director is well justified

I’m responding to Sean Logan’s recent letter telling Mahoning County citizens to “move on” and embrace the work of Executive Director Aaron Young at Mill Creek MetroParks.

In February, Young said he needed to fire 13 park employees in order to save $890,000 per year due to a $13 million shortfall in long-term capital improvements funding over 15 years. That came despite the park having received $16 million in new capital improvements funding via last November’s levy passage. The shortfall was absolutely not true.

Young’s discussion of the “shortfall” in The Vindicator was based on the ridiculous premise that the park wouldn’t receive a dime of outside funding for the next 15 years. Yet Young failed to tell the paper about his plans for $10 million in outside funding.

On Jan. 28, 2016, two weeks before the firings, Young stated in “Future Capital Improvements Projects 2017 & Beyond” that the park planned to receive $10,186,850 in outside funding for the years 2017 through 2022. Some $2.8 million of this was already secured via a federal grant for the bikeway. His report can be found on the park’s website under “2016 Plan Moving Forward.” Go to slide 30.

Beyond 2022, it’s inconceivable the park won’t take in at least $3 million in grants over the final nine years of Young’s 15-year window, especially since this year the park received $1 million from outside sources for capital improvements.

So Young reported in January that $10 million was planned from outside sources for capital improvements for 2017 through 2022. Yet the next month he leaves out the planned $10 million in outside funds when telling The Vindicator and the public that there would be a $13 million shortfall and that 13 staff needed to go.

This is why people are angry. This is why Mr. Young must go.

Bill Adams, Austintown

Victims of bullying must speak up, seek out help

Tragically, a young girl recently passed from this life into the arms of our Lord and His angels, due to an incident of bullying at one of our local schools. For all you parents and grandparents out there, please sit down with your children and grandchildren who are of school age, from grade school through high school and explain the following:

If you feel you are a victim of bullying, in any form, please seek the counsel and advice of either your family, school counselor, or school authorities, or your pastor, rabbi, or someone from whatever your church affiliation is. Please don’t wait until things get so far out of hand that you feel there is no recourse for help.

For those of you that are perpetrators of bullying, know that there are severe consequences for your actions. If you have any moral conscience at all, and you are responsible for another person doing harm to themselves because of your thoughtlessness, your scars will run deep the rest of your life.

Robert DeFelice, Youngstown

Fracking comes with terribly high price tag

A recent Vindica- tor letter writer praised the development of fracking, but the issue needs to be examined a little more deeply because our “energy independence” comes at a terrible price.

First, consider that injection- well drilling causes earthquakes. That’s a proven fact.

Second, all those thousands of jobs promised at the outset was a big fat lie. They only said that to get our local leaders salivating, with dollar signs in their eyes.

Next, most of these energy people aren’t even from around here. They couldn’t care less about our families, our soil or our water safety. They are here to suck profits out of the ground, period.

Lastly and most importantly, they are using millions of gallons of our local water supply for their operations. Once used, this water, mixed with various other chemicals, is forced into injection wells, where it will remain toxic to humans for the next 300 years.

Meander Reservoir is at risk everyday, and our governor and local leaders just look the other way.

There is so much to learn about fracking, people, so wake up. Remember, all those smiling faces in the TV ads have been bought and paid for by the energy companies.

Nick Stratos, Youngstown

A few questions to those who oppose creationism

Here we go again with attacks on creationism and why it can’t be in schools. Young people can’t be told the truth that God created the world and them, too.

The government has to control what the kids learn.

The 1 percent that doesn’t believe is forcing the truth out of schools.

They only want one man’s false ideas about how men and women evolved from monkeys.

Where did the oceans, continents, people, sea life, animals on land, come from? Where did the lightning, thunder, strong winds, rain, snow, earthquakes, come from? Where did the ice age, global warming, climate change come from?

Since the 1960s, we been getting all these lies about how the world was made.

When is the 99 percent going to stand up and say this must stop. Children of this great country need to know the truth. The creator gave us this country to live on and to have freedoms and have his blessings on all of us.

Lena Fox, New Middletown