Ohio board to online charter school: Pay back $60M

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio officials moved forward Monday with clawing back $60 million in disputed funding from one of the nation’s largest online charter schools, a blow that the school called unfair but unsurprising and likely to be the subject of further consideration in court.

The State Board of Education’s vote to have the Ohio Department of Education pursue that repayment from the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow is the latest development in their dispute over how attendance is tracked to determine funding.

ECOT has argued that the department improperly and retroactively changed those practices and that its original agreement with the state allowed logging attendance differently.

The department concluded the e-school didn’t have documentation of student log-ins to justify more than half of the nearly $109 million it got for the 2015-16 school year and should return that portion, and most members of the school board agreed.

ECOT representatives, parents of its attendees and other supporters addressed the board after the vote, pleading for reconsideration and praising ECOT’s structure as beneficial for students less suited to brick-and-mortar schools for various reasons, such as health problems, disabilities or different preferences in learning environment.

On the attendance-tracking issue, one commenter drew comparisons to the packed audience, questioning whether observers who were at times distracted by smartphones or laptops were really present for the board’s meeting.