Democrats Call For Charter Reform Hearings After Cincinnati School Shutters The closure of a Cincinnati-area charter school has again put a spotlight on the industry, prompting Democratic lawmakers on Thursday to call for legislative hearings aimed at reform. Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni (D-Boardman) and Rep. Denise Driehaus (D-Cincinnati) pointed to the closure of VLT Academy as yet another example of problems within the charter sector in Ohio. Ms. Driehaus said the school closed because of a lack of financial resources, but the shuttering of the site was not entirely unexpected. The schools previous sponsor had opted to terminate its contract at the end of the last school year. When VLT asked ODE to sponsor it, the agency declined because of the community schools poor academic performance record. VLT asked the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas to compel ODE to take over sponsorship and pay about $300,000 for its operation. That court sided with the charter, but when an appeals court stayed the decision last month, it all but guaranteed the school would not open on time. State law, however, allows community schools to begin operation by late fall. VLT has been open for seven years and all but one of those years it received either D or F equivalent report card grades. Rep. Driehaus said the school is an example of a flaw in Ohios charter law that sometimes shields the schools from closure. Charters cannot have their first two years grades held against them and they must have two out of three consecutive years with failing grades to be shut down by the state. Ignoring this problem is not going to make it go away, so were calling on the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate to simply hold hearings and have discussion on much-needed charter school reform, Sen. Schiavoni said at a Statehouse press conference. Lets not make this political, and lets fix the problem. The senator pointed to two bills (SB 329 & SB 190) he introduced this year that would require charter sponsors and operators to undergo annual audits and to impose similar public records requirements of those entities as the ones that apply to district schools. He welcomed Republicans to introduce their own legislation to overhaul charter laws if that is what it takes to get a discussion started.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 01:16:17 +0000
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