If transparency matters, apply it evenhandedly across Ohio’s public schools

On December 3, the Ohio Ethics Commission voted to require charter school governing board members to file full financial disclosure statements beginning in 2026. This move, unsurprisingly, has reignited a familiar debate about accountability in public education. Transparency in the use of public dollars is important, and Ohioans rightly expect strong ethical standards from anyone overseeing public institutions. As my Fordham Institute colleague correctly noted in press coverage of the decision, greater transparency for those overseeing public schools is generally a good thing.

But acknowledging the value of transparency does not mean ignoring a clear policy problem: Charter schools are being held to a higher standard than most traditional public school districts. Under Ohio law, only school board members in districts with more than 12,000 students must file financial disclosure statements. That means only board members in a dozen of Ohio’s more than 600 school districts face such a requirement. Yet charter school board members, many of whom are unpaid volunteers or receive only nominal compensation, will now be required to disclose their personal financial information.

If financial disclosure is an essential safeguard for taxpayers, it should be applied consistently across public education. Instead, this directive singles out charter schools based on governance structure rather than the public responsibilities that board members carry.

And in singling out charter schools, the Ethics Commission fails to apply logic consistent with how the legislature has chosen to treat school districts and educational service centers—namely, financial disclosure requirements only should apply to large educational institutions. Moreover, despite their existence for more than two decades, this marks the first time the Commission has applied the law in this manner to charter schools.

This disparate treatment is likely the result of charter schools often being described as “unaccountable.” While that claim doesn’t withstand even modest scrutiny, this is a good opportunity to remind everyone that charter schools are arguably the most accountable entity in Ohio’s public education system.

Let’s start with the basics. They administer the same state tests as district schools, and their academic results are publicly reported in exactly the same way. Their funding model is also more transparent and accountable: Charter schools receive state dollars only for the students they serve. When a student leaves, the funding leaves with them. Unlike districts, charters don’t have state funding guarantees or local property tax levies to buffer enrollment declines.[1]

Beyond the basics, charter schools face consequences that traditional school districts rarely do. Ohio law requires chronically-low-performing charter schools to close. Over the years, dozens of charter schools have been shut down for failing to meet academic or financial standards. District schools that post persistently weak results, by contrast, are almost never closed and often continue operating indefinitely.

Charter schools are also overseen by independent sponsors—state-approved entities responsible for monitoring academic performance, financial health, and legal compliance. Sponsors, like districts, have the power to intervene or close schools that are not meeting expectations. But unlike districts, sponsors themselves are evaluated by the state based on the outcomes of the schools they oversee and can lose their authority if they fail to hold schools to high standards. This gives them a clear incentive to act that does not exist in the district system.

None of this is an argument against transparency or accountability. In fact, it would be hard to find any entity in Ohio that has done more to strengthen charter school accountability than Fordham. While reasonable disclosure requirements can strengthen public trust, accountability policies should be grounded in fairness and consistency. Singling out charter school board members for broader disclosure—while exempting most district school boards—reinforces the mistaken perception that charter schools operate outside the public system or beyond oversight.

Charter schools are public schools. They educate Ohio children, use public funds, and are subject to stringent academic and financial accountability. Policymakers and regulators should stop looking for new ways to hold charter schools to standards that go above and beyond those applied to school districts. If Ohio believes stronger ethics disclosure rules are warranted, then the conversation should be about applying them evenhandedly across all public school governing bodies.

True accountability is not about imposing different rules on different types of public schools. It is about setting clear, consistent expectations—and holding everyone to them.