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You really want
to know about this
By Tom Dunn
In a previous article, I criticized state superintendent Dr. Richard
Ross for his claim that the state's quest for transparency is the
driving force behind the Ohio Department of Education's (ODE) School
District Report Card. I suggested that his, the ODE's, and the
legislature's quest for transparency seems to end where their pet
project, the charter school movement, begins. I challenged readers to
visit the independently created web site known as
http://knowyourcharter.com/ to become better informed about the charter
school debacle and how it impacts you.
Realizing that the percentage of readers who accepted my challenge
would likely be small, I wanted to follow up by sharing some of the
information contained on the site. My hope is that your interest will
be piqued enough that you will visit it to learn what is really being
done with your tax dollars. As a taxpayer, you should be very
interested in both the financial and academic information contained
there, and you should be outraged by it.
Before we even begin to discuss the complete academic failure of
charter schools in Ohio, which you can see by clicking on each
charter's name on the web site, let's start with the fact that $2.1
million were deducted from Miami County school districts last year and
sent to charter schools, nearly two million of which went to for-profit
entities operated by private corporations. You read that right - $2
million!
In other words, public funds that were approved for local districts,
otherwise known as yours and my tax dollars, are being sent to
for-profit companies under the pretense that these schools are better
than yours. Even worse, the money is often used to lobby our
legislators to create the laws that further benefit charter schools.
Keep in mind that public dollars can't be used to lobby for votes, but
for-profit charter school operators, along with some of their lawmaker
buddies, argue that it is perfectly acceptable for them to do so,
because their company is private. So, to underscore the ridiculousness
of this argument, charter schools, which the state champions as public
schools, can be run by private companies that use public funds in ways
that public funds can't be used. That shouldn't be acceptable to any of
us.
The fact is that once these dollars enter the for-profit black hole,
there is no oversight as to how they are being spent, and the folks at
ODE, in the legislature, and in the governor's office simply turn a
blind eye to the practice as if it doesn't occur. In fact, when State
Auditor Dave Yost tried to increase the oversight on these kinds of
activities, Governor Kasich and members of the legislature were less
than pleased. After all, this money helps get them elected.
It should tell you something that the people who should care about this
scam don't care at all, especially considering they tell us they are so
enamored with keeping us informed. In fact, if not for independent
researchers like those who created this web site and media outlets
uncovering the shenanigans of these companies, we wouldn't be any wiser
about how our tax dollars are being inappropriately used.
To see one example, take a few minutes and read the article at
http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/13/crony-capitalism-for-ohio-charter-schools-draws-criticism.
If that doesn't raise your ire, nothing will. A simple Google search
can uncover many similar articles, all of which should interest you,
since they are talking about your money.
It has become painfully obvious that the folks who should be providing
the oversight have no intention of changing what they do, so apparently
we must be the change agents for them. Learning what is happening is
the first step. Putting a stop to it should follow.
Tom Dunn of Troy is superintendent of the Miami County Educational
Service Center. He may be reached at tom.dunn@mcapps.org
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
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