It looks like overhauling Ohio’s charter school system requires a lot of heavy hitters from the political arena. A diverse group of leaders have joined together to tackle what they call a pressing issue.
Nearly 20 people stood with Republican Sen. Peggy Lehner of Kettering as she unveiled her new bill to fix what many believe to be a broken charter school system.
Lehner says Ohio’s charter schools lag behind other states because of the arcane rules surrounding the process.
“Being one of the first states to create charter schools, we had little experience to go on and many of our laws reflect that experience,” Lehner said.
Among the supporters were charter school advocates and House and Senate leaders from both sides of the aisle, including Lehner’s co-sponsor Sen. Tom Sawyer, a Democrat from Akron.
Sawyer commended the high-performing charters in Ohio but noted that there are too many schools falling short.
“In some cases they have a history of poor academic performance, financial mismanagement and in some cases criminal activity,” said Sawyer.
Sawyer and Lehner say their bill brings more transparency and accountability through tougher oversight of charter sponsors, reduced conflict of interest cases, and background checks for governing board members.
“These sort of provisions make so much sense and everyone assumes that they’re already in place but I think experience and being burned enough times has shown us that they are not,” said Lehner.
The bill expands on House Bill 2, a piece of legislation already passed by the House. That bill was criticized for not going far enough. Its sponsor, Republican Representative Kristina Roegner of Hudson, says she’s proud of the work behind the original bill but plans to introduce companion legislation to reflect Lehner’s bill in the House.
Democratic Representative John Patterson of Jefferson will join Roegner with that House bill, saying he’s excited about the bipartisan support.
“It’s not a Republican issue. It’s not a Democratic issue. It’s an Ohio issue. And we’re standing here, Democrats, Republicans, Senate and the House alike this is the way it should—it should work for all of us,” Patterson said.
Lehner believes several scenarios will play out as a result of this reform.
“So I anticipate yes there will be some that will close but more importantly I think we will see schools improving as they improve their governing structure I think we’re going to see the quality of those schools rise,” Lehner explained.
One provision added to the new bill that was cut from previous legislation takes on what’s known as sponsor-hopping. This is when a sponsor wants to pull support from a low-performing school so that school changes to another sponsor with lower standards.
In the new bill, that’s prohibited.
Along with closing poor-performing schools and improving the rest—Lehner believes all these new measures will create a more welcoming environment for other charter school operators looking to move to Ohio.
“That is one of the first and foremost purposes of this legislation they have let us know it’s kind of the wild, wild west here until we get our act in order they’re not really interested in Ohio,” said Lehner. The Senate has already scheduled hearings for the new bill.