WHERE THEY WENT

From Governor Strickland in Catalyst Ohio Magazine http://www.catalyst-ohio.org/news/ind...
Catalyst: Your proposals to prohibit for-profit charters and limit them in other ways didn’t go over well with the legislature. What lessons did you learn?

Strickland: Special interests have huge sway in our legislative bodies and [among] our political leaders. I called attention to what I think are intolerable practices and will continue to hold charter schools to fair and equitable standards just as we apply those standards to public schools.
I’ve said that the concept of a charter school is in fact defensible. I have not said that all charter schools are failing. But I have said that the way the charter school movement has been implemented in Ohio is shameful. Many of our charter schools are managed by for-profit companies and their performance is dismal. They have not been held to either fiscal or academic standards that I think are necessary to justify the diversion of last year about $20 billion out of our public school system.

More from Strickland: We should have in place definite standards regarding fiscal responsibilities so we know how the money is being used [and] who’s benefiting. We need very definite criteria regarding how the boards are formed, who serves on them and the requirements. [We also need] health and safety standards regarding the adequacy of the building; standards for those who teach in these schools; well understood procedures for assessing the performance; and criteria that would lead to the closing of those that are not living up to their responsibilities.
Something that I didn’t realize when I became governor is that a significant percentage of our charter schools were grandfathered in, in such a way that deprives the Ohio Department of Education from exerting any authority or control over them.