Is this kind of charter fiasco coming to Kansas? Not if we can help it. The charter school model has undergone a huge transformation from its original form, and we are carefully watching states that have made it too easy to open and to hard to close charters while destabilizing public schools. There are Kansas legislators and lobbyists pushing for this for Kansas. Here’s a recap of what’s going on in Ohio.
As students throughout Ohio head back to the classroom, it’s time to take the first test of the new school year.
Q: What’s significant about 117,730?
A: That’s the number of children enrolled in charter schools in Ohio — a state with some of the worst such schools in the nation, a place in desperate need of meaningful reform and regulation.
What’s happening inside these schools isn’t part of Gov. John Kasich’s Ohio “miracle.” To the contrary, what’s happening is manmade. And it’s intentional.
Many of these schools take your tax money, but they fail miserably in the the task of educating children. And they get away with it because state regulation of these schools is inexcusably feeble.
Q: Doesn’t Article 6.02 of the Ohio Constitution require the state to provide a “thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state?”
A: It does. But Ohio has been willfully violating that requirement for years. The state legislature’s failure to adequately regulate charter schools amounts to nothing less than criminal neglect.
Q: How can this happen when so many state legislators are on record supporting better regulation?
A: Remember, some legislators lie a lot.
When it comes to people running the Ohio General Assembly, watch what they do. Ignore what they say.
Q: Earlier this year, the Ohio House passed a decent bill requiring charter schools to keep better records on student performance and to do a better job educating children, and making it easier to put the underperforming ones out of business. Isn’t that now the law?
A: No. The Senate made the law passed by the House, known as House Bill 2, even better. But House Republican leadership, headed by Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, sent members home for the summer, saying there wasn’t enough time to deal with the Senate’s many changes.
Q: Is that a legitimate excuse?
A: It’s an intentional falsehood. Days earlier, the same House took about six seconds to wrest control of the Youngstown school system from the people who live there. The heist was done in broad daylight, without holding a single hearing, without giving the public a moment’s heads up.
There’s no law saying the legislature can’t meet during the summer. The “too many changes” argument advanced by Rosenberger and others was a canard.
State Rep. Kristina Roegner, a Republican from Hudson and the prime sponsor of HB 2, told me, “I love the changes the Senate put in there.”
Q: Then why didn’t the House do what’s right for children and concur with the Senate bill?
A: Because some things matter more to many legislators than children. In the past 17 years, charter school operators have donated more than $6 million to Republican candidates and causes.
In late June and early July, as the future of HB 2 hung in the balance, online charter school leader William Lager contributed $91,726 to Republican candidates and lawmakers who were considering the charter reform measure, according to an Aug. 10 story in The Cincinnati Enquirer.
With more than 14,000 students, Lager’s Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow is Ohio’s largest charter school. It’s also one of Ohio’s worst-performing.
Q: Earlier this year, Gov. John Kasich said he wanted the legislature to enact stricter measures governing underperforming charter schools. Kasich must be furious over the House’s failure to do what he wanted, right?
A: If that’s the case, he’s hiding it well.
To my knowledge Kasich hasn’t said anything substantive about the House’s decision to go home instead of helping kids. An Aug. 12 email to Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols asking if the governor would have signed the bill sent him by the Senate went unanswered.
In an Aug. 19 campaign stop in New Hampshire, Kasich made a vague reference to it being hard for Republican legislators to crack down on charter schools, but made no direct mention of his cowardly GOP colleagues back home.
My guess is Kasich would have signed the Senate version. Nevertheless, it’s also worth noting that some of Kasich’s closest political allies and personal friends have been paid by Lager and other charter school operators to make sure the legislature protects bad schools.
Q: Won’t the House pass a reform bill when legislators return to Columbus in September?
A: Probably. Media outlets from every corner of Ohio will have shamed them into doing something. But by slinking out of town without acting on the Senate’s changes to the bill, House leaders guaranteed that kids get the shaft for at least another semester.
Plus, these people are not to be trusted. Expect them to slip in some provisions that water down the bill. Remember, with this crowd, donations trump a child’s needs.
Q: Rep. Roegner is a conservative Republican in a state run by conservative Republicans. How is it she failed to get this bill passed?
A: Roegner has traits that limit her effectiveness in the legislature. She’s smart, graduating with honors from prestigious universities (Tufts and Wharton) many of her colleagues have probably never even heard of.
She’s honest. Roegner cannot be bought.
She cares. With some notable exceptions, the best members of the legislature tend to be females. And the male leadership in both houses don’t like it one bit when the women in the House and Senate have the nerve to suggest doing what’s best for 11.3 million Ohioans.
“Sometimes I think I’m not singing from the same hymnbook as a lot of people in Columbus,” said Roegner. “I just want what’s best for these kids.”
Roegner didn’t have to take this test. She’s already earned her “A.”
Too bad there are so many deadbeats in her class.
Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/08/legislative_inaction_adds_to_o.html#incart_river