Since its birth in 1997, Ohio’s charter school program has been on a bumpy ride. Overall sector quality has been mixed, and Ohio charters have been bogged down by controversy, some of it based on partisan politics. But a new day is dawning for the Buckeye State’s charter schools. State policymakers have begun to embrace charter governance reforms. Governor Kasich and the legislature—with support from both parties—have worked together to craft legislative proposals that, if enacted, would remedy Ohio’s broken charter school law and create new incentives aimed at expanding high-quality charters throughout the state. Presently, the Ohio Senate is considering the charter reform bills.
We at Fordham have voiced our loud and clear support for charter reform in Ohio. But we’re not the only voices seeking big changes. In addition to support from key policymakers, editorial boards, and business organizations, the leaders at some of the Buckeye State’s very finest charter schools have also taken a stand and are demanding change as well. At committee hearings in the Senate on May 6 and the House on March 11, legislators heard from three leaders of Ohio’s high-quality urban charters. Here are some highlights of their testimony:
Superintendent Judy Hennessy of Dayton Early College Academy, a high-performing charter that serves more than 80 percent low-income and minority students, told the members of a Senate committee that “greater transparency in the operations and governance of charter schools will help remedy some of the flaws in existing legislation.” Specifically, she emphasized the need for greater financial transparency, a simpler school consolidation procedure, and greater access to facility funding (especially scarce for Ohio charters).
Andy Boy, founder and CEO of the United Schools Network in Columbus, zeroed in on the proposals for strengthening sponsorship (a.k.a. “authorizing”). He told lawmakers, “When we launched our first school, we spent considerable time researching sponsors. In some cases we were appalled by the easy application process and lax attitude around the real challenges of a startup school.” The benefit of the proposed charter reforms, he said, is that it “empowers the Ohio Department of Education to approve, evaluate, and publicly rate all charter school sponsors, including previously grandfathered sponsors.…By holding sponsors more accountable, we will improve the charter school landscape in Ohio.”
John Zitzner, president of the Friends of Breakthrough Schools in Cleveland, spoke before a House committee in support of the charter reforms contained in the governor’s proposals. More specifically, he commended the proposed $25 million facility fund that would be made available to schools sponsored by exemplary charter sponsors, calling the fund “much needed.” Yet he also expressed concerns about whether the fund should be accessible to high-performing individual schools, regardless of the rating of their authorizers. How state lawmakers determine access to the proposed state facility fund is one question worth watching in the waning days of this legislative session.
Buckeye lawmakers have a great opportunity to vastly improve Ohio’s charter schools by laying the policy groundwork needed for the sector to thrive. They should take stock of the testimony of those who lead our highest-performing charter schools—the leaders who are forging a stronger charter school sector for Ohio.
