For years we have been using this space to criticize operations at a now-defunct online community school and demanding our state recover upward of $80 million from the school known as the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT.

ECOT, once Ohio’s largest online charter school, had been manipulating enrollment numbers, triggering increased state funding. According to audits dating back as far as 2015-16, the online school could not verify the student numbers it claimed to have. This improper accounting led to funds being redirected to ECOT from nearly every one of Ohio’s deserving public school districts. That includes millions of dollars that were funneled from local public school districts.

In fact, a 2018 study done by the Columbus-based think tank Innovation Ohio concluded ECOT received nearly $591 million in tax dollars over the state’s public schools. Locally, school districts lost big. In fact, the analysis reported that $5.6 million had been diverted away from Warren City Schools at that time, and some $2 million was diverted from Niles City Schools.

In Mahoning County, about $4.1 million was diverted away from Youngstown City Schools and for Austintown Local Schools, the report shows the amount is $809,861.

Columbiana County’s public schools lost $1.3 million in state funding to ECOT.

In fact, Innovation Ohio’s analysis showed all but six of Ohio’s 613 public school districts lost some state funding to ECOT.

For quite some time the state had worked to claw back some of those funds, but then the online charter school closed — rendering impossible that method of recovering misdirected taxpayer dollars, while leaving some 12,000 students scrambling mid-year.

In 2018, the Ohio Department of Education said it would work with Ohio’s attorney general to recover the overpaid funds. We argued at that time state officials should leave no stone unturned in attempts to get every penny of the misappropriated funds back.

Now, we are pleased to see that state officials made good on that promise.

In a 4-3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled this week that ECOT must return $60 million to the state because it inflated enrollment figures. By Ohio law, the state school board’s decision is final and not subject to appeal.

The significant decision ends two attempts by ECOT to challenge the board’s order.

Now let’s be realistic — collection of those funds may remain another issue.

But so far, the state has not dropped the ball on this lengthy legal battle. We encourage officials to keep it up. Collection efforts must be strong and steady, even if it drags on for years.

Then, as the funds are collected, we see it as only fair that a plan of action be created allowing the money to be reallocated to the school districts that lost the money to ECOT in the first place.

editorial@vindy.com