The deal struck with charters was that in return for far greater flexibility would come far greater accountability. For many years, the state failed at the accountability part, and really bad schools remained opened and even replicated; many should not have been allowed to open in the first place.
Fortunately, the legislature and state leadership is beginning to recognize this sobering reality. Indeed, the Ohio Department of Education allowed very few new schools to open this year, placing an emphasis on operators set up for success. (Dayton’s Fordham Institute is one of only two exemplary sponsors in the state.) ODE is also implementing a new system to evaluate charter school sponsors, which places a heavy emphasis on student outcomes. This high-level of accountability has the potential to greatly improve the charter school landscape in Ohio.
Governor Kasich and the House and Senate have all introduced legislation that will likewise help at long last to incubate a culture of accountability, transparency and quality when it comes to school choice.
First out the gate was the Ohio House, whose recent passage of House Bill 2, sponsored by Rep. Mike Dovilla and Rep. Kristina Roegner, marked an important and necessary shift towards a culture of accountability when it comes to Ohio charter schools. Governor Kasich’s budget proposal (HB 64) also introduces a good many quality controls, creating an environment that will make it very difficult for poor charter school sponsors to continue operating schools in Ohio. And Senate Education Chair Peggy Lehner — after months of coalition building — has introduced strong bi-partisan legislation (SB 148) that comprehensively goes at creating a culture of accountability and quality when it comes to Ohio charter schools.
Ohio is home to many great charter schools, like Dayton Early College Academy (DECA). Unfortunately, not every charter school in Ohio is as successful as DECA. A recent report from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), which was published last December, shows that Ohio’s overall charter school performance lags that of other states.
On the other hand, CREDO’s data also shows that low-income charter school students, especially low-income black students, have significant learning gains in both reading and math compared to their peers who remain at their traditional public school. Overall, low-income students gain 14 days of learning in both reading and math. The learning gains for low-income black students jumps to 29 days in reading and 22 in math.
Therefore, it is imperative that policymakers create the conditions needed to scale up successful charter schools that play an important role in helping to close Ohio’s achievement gap, while also closing poor performing schools.
All the aforementioned efforts work towards accomplishing this goal, and will likely be consolidated into single legislation. Expect to see the following reforms passed into law:
• Improving accountability by ensuring the performance of district-sponsored “dropout recovery” charter schools is counted in the district report card. This reform removes any incentive for districts to sponsor charters in order to exclude low-performing students’ test scores from their report cards.
• Improving fiscal accountability by requiring the governing board of every charter school to directly employ a fiscal officer who is independent from the school, and thus empowered with better oversight powers.
• Improving ethical conduct by requiring charter school administrators and board members to complete an annual training on public records and open meeting laws
• Requiring ODE to create and publish an annual performance report for all charter schools
• Prohibiting profiteering by requiring an operator to lease property to a charter school at fair market rental value
• Rewarding results by allowing exemplary rated sponsors longer contracts by ODE
• Curbing “sponsor hopping” by requiring low performing charter schools to receive approval from ODE prior to entering into a contract with a new sponsor. This prevents faltering charters from evading closure by their existing sponsor by finding a new sponsor.
• Greater local facilities support for high-performing charter networks. (Currently charters need to redirect classroom dollars for expenses like rent and maintenance.)
These kinds of reforms are needed to ensure our K-12 system of public schools give parents and their kids’ quality options – not lousy ones – and thus improve school choice overall.
After nearly two decades, charter schools are no longer an “experiment.” They are part of the fabric of the public education system, and their students need to stop being treated as second-class citizens within Ohio’s K-12 system. That said, charter school sponsors that consistently fail to incubate good schools need to be put out of business in Ohio. High-caliber sponsors, however, have earned the right for to bring quality charters to scale and create better options for Ohio kids.
Greg Harris is State Director of StudentsFirst Ohio.
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