Ohio Governor Ted Strickland: “Perhaps somewhere, charter schools have been implemented in a defensible manner, where they have provided quality. But the way they’ve been implemented in Ohio has been shameful. I think charter schools have been harmful, very harmful, to Ohio students.”
Public charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded, can be successful when they hire quality, preferably unionized teachers; keep detailed, public statistics on their performance; and are managed by vetted institutions with proven track records. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in Ohio, where under Republican leadership, 70 organizations were allowed to open charter schools, including corporate donors to the state GOP. Consider this for comparison’s sake: In New York, all charters are managed by one of three institutions.
Now Strickland, elected last year, is cracking down by closing failing charter schools. Of Ohio’s 328 charters, half received a D or F on state school assessments. Traditional public schools are doing only a bit better: 43 percent of non-charter urban schools in Ohio are on “emergency watch” or are classified as “failing.” But those schools, unlike the charters, are subjected to stricter oversight. Any school funded by the state must be held accountable to the public.
—Dana Goldstein
