Ecot Lager

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">watchdog? dB?</font></p><header style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 110px; line-height: 18px; height: auto !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><time datetime="2015-01-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 21st, 2015</font></time></header><header style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 110px; line-height: 18px; height: auto !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1em; font-weight: 400 !important; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Policy vs. Politics: Which will prevail in the looming Ohio charter school reform fight?</font></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 1.48em;">Ohio taxpayers should feel more optimistic than usual that their state leaders will finally begin reining in Ohio’s “charter debacle”</span><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn1" name="ftnref1" style="line-height: 1.48em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial;">[1]</a><span style="line-height: 1.48em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.48em;">now that Gov. John Kasich has announced that he will undertake an overhaul.</span></font></h3></header><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We are going to fix the lack of regulation on charter schools,” he said in December. “There is no excuse for people coming in here and taking advantage of anything. So we will be putting some tough rules into our budget.”<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn2" name="ftnref2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[2]</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, there are serious questions about how far the overhaul will actually go,  and whether the state’s current legion of low-performing charters will feel the pinch of those new “tough” rules.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> This is because operators of failing charter schools, led by David Brennan (and his wife, Ann) of White Hat Management and William Lager of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (see our <a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial;">ECOT: The Cost of Failure</a> report) have been among the largest single donors to Ohio politicians – especially the Republicans who now dominate state government.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The challenge for those who are committed to achieving real reform is whether stronger charter policy will triumph over the charter politics that have made Ohio’s charter school sector notorious for its failings. While there are several Ohio charter schools that are doing a fine job providing meaningful options for parents and children, overall, charter schools received more Fs than As, Bs and Cs combined on the latest state report card. And Ohio’s local taxpayers end up subsidizing these mostly failing schools because the state pays them so much more per pupil than children receive in traditional public schools.</font></p><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.67em 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is a political, not an educational fight.”</font></h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In 1999, David Brennan – who masterminded the state’s charter school program in the last year of the George Voinovich administration</b><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn3" name="ftnref3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;"><b>[3</b>]</a> – said of the discussion over charter schools in Ohio that “This is a political, not an educational fight.”<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn4" name="ftnref4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[4]</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And that, in a nutshell, is why Ohio’s charter school laws have been characterized as the “Wild, Wild West”</b> of the nation’s charter school laws, a phrase coined by the pro-charter National Association of Charter School Authorizers.<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn5" name="ftnref5" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[5]</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While many states have adopted tough new regulations  to rein in the poorest performing schools in those jurisdictions, Ohio has seen the charter sector grow to a more than $900 million program, with the last three years constituting the largest three-year dollar increase in a decade.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of this laissez-faire approach to Ohio’s charter schools can be traced directly to two men –<b> Brennan and William Lager, who runs the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow – the nation’s single largest for-profit K-12 school.<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn6" name="ftnref6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[6]</a></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Between the two of them, they have contributed about $6.4 million to Ohio politicians and committees since 1998.<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/#ftn7" name="ftnref7" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial;">[7]</a> Of that, less than 3 percent went to Democrats.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are the Ohio politicians who have received the most from the Brennans (Brennan also makes contributions through his wife, Ann) and Lager, starting with those who received the largest amount. As can be seen, the charter school operators directed most of their money to the legislative leaders in both chambers, controlled by the Republicans.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://knowyourcharter.com/</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2010</font></p><p><span style="line-height: 21.56px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Brennan and William Lager operate scores of charter schools whose funding - not to mention their very existence - depends on the legislature and governor. The Wayne Boich family, primary bankrollers of Ney's defense fund, operates coal mines that are subject to government regulation on several levels.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> <b style="line-height: 1.4;">Similarly, Tom Needles, head of a consulting firm hired by Brennan, said the charter-school magnate's multimillion-dollar campaign donations </b><span style="line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">are "only part of the story. He's long believed that it's our duty to be involved in civic affairs at some level. His political contributions are merely a part of that involvement."</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Needles also said Brennan campaign cash can lead to influence: "We believe that contributions to an individual's campaign certainly provide an opportunity to educate a candidate about issues we care about, but candidate contributions are no guarantee that we'll be granted access or favorable treatment."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sometimes, those contributors hit rough patches.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Brennan gave $200,000 to a little-known Virginia group called All Children Matter that illegally funneled money to GOP candidates in Ohio in an attempt to avoid state contribution limits. So far, the group, which has changed its name and remains active in Ohio campaigns, has not paid a $5.2million fine levied by the Ohio Elections Commission. The bill has been turned over to the attorney general's office for collection.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Columbus Dispatch</span> <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/01/04/popular-ecot-poor-performer.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">wrote</a> recently of the academic failures of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) where the graduation rate of 38% is among the worst of any school in the state. Among Ohio’s 613 traditional public school districts , the lowest graduation rate is 60.9%. In addition, ECOT received all Fs and one D on the state’s most recent report card.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Despite its abysmal performance record, ECOT continues to expand.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> More than 14,500 children are currently enrolled, making ECOT the equivalent of the 10</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">th </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">largest school district in the state. The Dispatch story noted that ECOT founder </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">William Lager has donated more than $1 million to Ohio politicians in the last five years  as his school has grown exponentially.</span></font></p><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.67em 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Failure at What Cost?</font></span></h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Information at KnowYourCharter.com helps clarify the burden that <b>local public schools must bear to cover the costs of students who chose to attend  ECOT. Kids in all 88 Ohio counties are impacted. More than 95% of school districts – 586 of 613 districts – have students and  money being transferred to ECOT. As one of the state’s 9 statewide e-schools and one of the country’s largest for-profit K-12 schools, ECOT’s poor performance is exacerbated by its extraordinary financial impact on children throughout the state.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to state data located at KnowYourCharter.com, more than 90% of the districts that had students and  funding transferred to ECOT in the 2012-2013 school year<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftn1" name="ftnref1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[1]</a> had more money go to ECOT than the state would have paid the district<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftn2" name="ftnref2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[2]</a>. That forces districts throughout the state to subsidize ECOT with local tax revenues to make up those per pupil state funding differences – differences that in two cases topped more than $10,000 per pupil<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftn3" name="ftnref3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[3]</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The average difference between what the state would have paid districts for the kids attending ECOT  in the 528 districts was $2,897 per pupil  <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">less</span> than what was paid to ECOT. That means local taxpayers had to subsidize the difference to make up for the larger  payments to ECOT.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For districts that had at least 1 full-time student transfer to ECOT during the 2012-2013 school year, here are the biggest per pupil funding differences between what  ECOT was paid and what the state paid the district in the last school year:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table1.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="not-responsive aligncenter size-full wp-image-1231" src="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table1.png" alt="table1" srcset="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table1.png 405w, http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table1-217x300.png 217w" sizes="(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; width: auto; height: auto; display: block; margin: 0px auto 1em;" /></font></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of these school districts are among the state’s highest performers, and they are losing significant per pupil funding from the state to a school that graduates students at a 20 percent lower rate than the <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">worst</span> traditional public school district. Consider as well that all this money goes to a school that doesn’t have a building, lunch ladies, buses, a gym, or any one of myriad expenses endured by brick and mortar schools.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are some more facts from <a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">KnowYourCharter.com</a>:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 18px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The $6,440 per student that ECOT received during the 2012-2013 school year is more money per pupil than was received by 91% of Ohio’s traditional public school districts this last school year – nearly $1,000 more than Cincinnati and Columbus together received from the state.</font></li></ul><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Nearly 3 out of 4 dollars sent to ECOT came from money meant for districts outside the state’s major urban centers.</b></font></li></ul><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The all Fs and one D that ECOT received on the state report card data that can be found at KnowYourCharter.com was not matched by any Ohio school district. Only 3 of 613 Ohio school districts received all Fs and one C – and ECOT received between $1,100 and $3,600 more per pupil than those districts.</font></li></ul><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since ECOT opened in the 2000-2001 school year, Ohio taxpayers have paid ECOT nearly $690 million. But nearly half that total – $328 million – has come in the last four school years.</b></font></li></ul><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>ECOT received more than $570,000 from the 25 highest performing school districts on the state’s performance index score. These districts all had scores that were more than 1/3 higher than ECOT’s.</b></font></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are the historical payments made to ECOT since it opened 15 years ago:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/figure1.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="not-responsive aligncenter wp-image-1232" src="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/figure1.png" alt="figure1" width="650" height="394" srcset="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/figure1.png 713w, http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/figure1-300x181.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; width: auto; height: auto; display: block; margin: 0px auto 1em;" /></font></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Below are the Ohio school districts that had more than $1 million transferred to ECOT in the 2012-2013 school year:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table2.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="not-responsive aligncenter size-full wp-image-1233" src="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table2.png" alt="table2" srcset="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table2.png 327w, http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table2-300x295.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 327px) 100vw, 327px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; width: auto; height: auto; display: block; margin: 0px auto 1em;" /></font></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are the Ohio counties whose school districts had more than $1 million combined that were transferred to ECOT in the 2012-2013 school year:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table3.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="not-responsive aligncenter size-full wp-image-1234" src="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table3.png" alt="table3" srcset="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table3.png 314w, http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table3-206x300.png 206w" sizes="(max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; width: auto; height: auto; display: block; margin: 0px auto 1em;" /></font></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ECOT received significant tax dollars originally meant for districts in Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties. The chart below shows  what each Appalachian county<a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftn4" name="ftnref4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[4]</a> had to transfer to ECOT during the 2012-2013 school year – a total of nearly $15 million. It was in Appalachia that the Ohio Supreme Court found that the state didn’t provide enough resources to Ohio’s schools.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table4.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="not-responsive aligncenter size-full wp-image-1235" src="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table4.png" alt="table4" srcset="http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table4.png 276w, http://knowyourcharter.com/files/2015/01/table4-132x300.png 132w" sizes="(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; width: auto; height: auto; display: block; margin: 0px auto 1em;" /></font></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, a recently-released study of the quality of Ohio charter schools by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO) found that children in rural areas lose almost an entire year of learning in charter schools than kids in the traditional school districts they left. Much of that failure is driven by e-schools like ECOT.</font></p><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.67em 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Opportunities</font></span></h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Momentum has been building in Ohio for change in how the state’s charter schools (including e-Schools like ECOT) are paid for and held accountable. The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project hopes that the data on KnowYourCharter.com  will spur policymakers to hold schools like ECOT accountable for their failures so that more hard-earned taxpayer dollars aren’t put into schools that continuously fail the state’s taxpayers, parents and children.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftnref1" name="ftn1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[1]</a> KnowYourCharter.com will be updating the district to charter transfer data to 2013-2014 school year amounts in the coming weeks. That data has typically been finalized and made available from the Ohio Department of Education in January – a few months after the district state funding is available. In this analysis, we look at 2012-2013 district-to-charter data and compare it with 2013-2014 school district state funding.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftnref2" name="ftn2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[2]</a> The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project looked at how much per pupil state revenue was<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">actually</span> transferred from each district to ECOT in the 2012-2013 school year. The amount listed at KnowYourCharter.com is an average of all transfers. But for this analysis, we wanted to be as accurate as possible about which districts actually received more or less state revenue as they transferred to ECOT.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftnref3" name="ftn3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[3]</a> In these districts, ECOT received funding for less than 1 full student. So these districts are not included in the chart on page 2</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.48em; margin: 0px 0px 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/09/ecot-cost-failure/#ftnref4" name="ftn4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">[4]</a> Appalachian counties as determined by the Appalachian Regional Commission.<a href="http://www.arc.gov/counties" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s linear; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: purple; background: 0px 0px;">http://www.arc.gov/counties</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>

<div class="GGD0W3FBKT" aria-hidden="false" style="font-weight: bold; float: left; top: 3px; left: 5px; margin-right: 110px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hansen, david</font></div>

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/comment/36416#comment-36416" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">http://www.prwatch.org/comment/36416#comment-36416</font></a>

</b> </font>

<b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ohio state education officials are now admitting that Ohio has<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/02/04/charter-school-federal-grant.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">almost ten times as many failing charter schools as the state initially claimed</a>.</font></b>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This revelation comes as Ohio tries to hang onto a $71 million federal charter school grant in the wake of scandals over misleading the grant application reviewers and breaking state law by altering charter school performance statistics. That was the largest grant award by the U.S. Department of Education last year.</font></span>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ohio newspapers and the Center for Media and Democracy reported last October that the Ohio Department of Education's claims about the excellence of the state's charter-school system were intentionally misleading.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the state's July 2015 grant application, education officials reported that in the 2012-13 school year Ohio had no "poor performing" charters, even though about a third of the schools didn't meet any of the standards on state report cards and 60 percent earned D's or F's on a measure of how students perform on state tests.</font></span>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The grant application also said an automatic-closure law would shut down any failing charter schools without disclosing that the law will not be in effect for several years.</font>

<b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">  Meanwhile, it turns out that then-Ohio charter school chief David Hansen, who drafted the grant application, also rigged charter school sponsor evaluations to improve their ratings. Hansen resigned July 18, two days after submitting the grant request to the feds and several days after admitting he broke the law by excluding failing grades for some charter schools in the evaluations.</font></b>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hansen's wife, Beth Hansen, is Ohio Governor John Kasich's former chief of staff and the manager of Kasich's newly surging presidential campaign. She left her government post for the campaign in the midst of the scandal as the pre-primary season was beginning. Kasich has not been asked about the charter school failures in the national debates.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the latest news, Ohio's Department of Education now says there were actually 57 poor-performing charter schools in the state in the 2013-14 school year, not six.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Its July grant application claimed there were only six.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Conversely, the state said there were 93 "high-performing charter schools" in July and now it says there are just 59.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">These performance statistics are for 290 brick-and-mortar charter schools and still do not include online charters (which Hansen omitted). </font></span>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">These numbers were included in a January 29 letter to the federal regulators who put a hold on Ohio's charter-school grant amid the concerns. The 20-page letter is signed by interim state superintendent Lonny J. Rivera, and was the state's third response to questions from federal regulators since the review was opened.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Part of the reason Ohio won the grant in the first place was a glowing endorsement from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA)—an organization that had previously referred to the charter system in Ohio as "broken."</font></b></span>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But NACSA rethought that assessment as it signed a $40,000-a-year agreement with the Ohio Department of Education to lend assistance to the state's charter school authorizers. The deal was brokered by former NACSA senior executive and lobbyist Hansen before he resigned as head of the Ohio Office of Quality School Choice.</font></span>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">During his time as NACSA's top lobbyist, Hansen represented the organization at meetings of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(ALEC), touting "high quality" charters. That's the post he took after he left the "<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Buckeye_Institute_for_Public_Policy_Solutions" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Buckeye Institute</a>" and before Kasich put him in charge of charters for the state of Ohio.</font></b></span>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hansen previously led the Buckeye Institute, an Ohio "think tank" that is part of the controversial "<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Portal:State_Policy_Network" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">State Policy Network</a>" (SPN). SPN special interest groups amplify ALEC's lobbying agenda, which includes numerous bills to siphon money from traditional public schools to charters and for-profit enterprises. It should be no surprise that a virtual school corporation,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13009/k12-inc-tries-pivot-virtual-school-failures" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">K12</a>, sits on ALEC's corporate board and has co-chaired its education task force where corporate lobbyists and special interest groups vote as equals with state legislators on bills, behind closed doors at posh resorts with fancy private parties. Before Hansen became Kasich's point person on charters, NACSA sent Hansen to ALEC to advance its charter school agenda there.</font></span>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cleveland's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Plain Dealer</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>reported last June that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/06/ohio_ignores_online_school_fs_as_it_evaluates_charter_school_overseers.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Hansen intentionally left F grades for online charter schools out of academic evaluations</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of charter school oversight agencies. Those F grades for schools run by major Republican donors would have dragged down the rating of the oversight agencies.</font></span>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">One of the largest such agencies in the state is the Ohio Council of Community Schools, which collects about $1.5 million in sponsor fees a year from students attending Ohio Virtual Academy and the Ohio Distance and Electronic Learning Academy (OHDLA), an online school run by a company owned by David Brennan, a big Republican campaign donor in Ohio.</font></span>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ohio has hoped to use the $71 million in federal aid to give grants of up to $700,000 to applicants seeking to open new charter schools. That's nearly a million dollar giveaway per charter to experiments, which have often failed, while traditional public schools are facing budget cuts that hurt school children and their learning environment.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But, as CMD revealed in its "<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/charter-school-black-hole" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Charter School Black Hole</a>" report last October, out of the 88 Ohio charter schools created by planning and implementation grants under the Charter School Program between 2008 and 2013, at least 15 closed within a few years and another seven never opened at all. These charters received more than $4 million in federal taxpayer money.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Despite this track record and despite the false and deceptive claims the state made in its application for more federal tax dollars for charters , Ohio landed the biggest one-year grant in the 2015 competition for federal funding, $32.6 million, with more planned in the coming years.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Since 2004, Ohio has been granted more than $195 million in American tax dollars by the U.S. Department of Education under the Charter School Program for State Educational Agencies (CSP-SEA). That's part of the more than $3.7 billion CMD has documented that the federal government has spent fueling the charter school industry over the past few decades.</font></p>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div><div class="gwt-HTML" aria-hidden="false" style="orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/07/188231/ohio-charter-schools-werent-reporting-failing-grades">http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/07/188231/ohio-charter-schools-werent-reporting-failing-grades</a></font></div>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="line-height: 20.8px;"></span></font></p><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="28" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Which will prevail in the looming Ohio charter school reform fight?</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">knowyour<b>charter</b>.com/.../policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-<b>ch</b>...</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&oq=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&aqs=chrome..69i57.1654j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b0" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ7B0IHjAA" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px !important; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQqR8IHzAA" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:McYJcaqjhEJ:knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></li><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:knowyourcharter.com/2015/01/21/policy-vs-politics-will-prevail-looming-ohio-charter-school-reform-fight/+David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQHwghMAA" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jan 21, 2015 - </span>In 1999, <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span> – who masterminded the state's <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter school</span>... <span style="font-weight: bold;">Brennan and William Lager</span>, who runs the Electronic Classroom of ... the contributions, or the contributions <span style="font-weight: bold;">work</span> to increase the state money? ... to the difference between the state's highest <span style="font-weight: bold;">scoring</span> school district and the state's 585<sup style="line-height: 0.9;">th</sup><wbr />.</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="35" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="ogd b w xsm" style="font-weight: bold; cursor: auto; margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[PDF]</font></span><a href="http://innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IO.051211.eschools.pdf" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">ohio's e-schools: funding failure; coddling contributors - Innovation Ohio</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/.../IO.051211.e<b>schools</b>.pdf</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&oq=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&aqs=chrome..69i57.1654j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b1" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ7B0IJTAB" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px !important; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQqR8IJjAB" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3NMvnuicAoUJ:innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IO.051211.eschools.pdf+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></li><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IO.051211.eschools.pdf+David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQHwgoMAE" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">May 11, 2011 - </span>twice as fast as enrollment in brick and mortar <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter schools</span>. And this .... the lowest <span style="font-weight: bold;">score</span> among the 7 at 77.8, outscores only 8 of Ohio's 613 traditional school districts. .... from just two men – <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan and William</span> Lagerxx. ... For his part, Mr. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lager</span>, who <span style="font-weight: bold;">operates</span> ECOT, has made nearly $1 million in.</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="42" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/ecot/" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">ECOT | janresseger</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/ecot/</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&oq=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&aqs=chrome..69i57.1654j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b2" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ7B0ILDAC" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px !important; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQqR8ILTAC" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VdKkrRVj5JkJ:https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/ecot/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></li></ol></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Mar 15, 2016 - </span>Another longtime Ohio <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter school</span> backer is <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span>, founder .... “The privately <span style="font-weight: bold;">operated</span>, publicly funded schools get about $6,000 per student each year. .... of Tomorrow (ECOT), the state's largest <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter school whose</span>operator ... The Dispatch reporters remind readers that, “<span style="font-weight: bold;">William Lager</span>, ECOT ...</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="48" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/william-lager/" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">William Lager | janresseger</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/<b>william</b>-<b>lager</b>/</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&oq=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&aqs=chrome..69i57.1654j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b3" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ7B0IMjAD" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px !important; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQqR8IMzAD" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7fCLtRNNrGAJ:https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/william-lager/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></li><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/william-lager/+David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQHwg1MAM" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posts about <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Lager</span> written by janresseger. ... $23 million, or about one-<wbr />fifth of the nearly $115 million in government <span style="font-weight: bold;">funds</span> it took in.” ... Classroom of Tomorrow,<span style="font-weight: bold;">whose</span> lobbyists have been trying to block a bill sponsored by the ..... the big <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter school</span> czars, <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Lager</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span>, are happy to oblige.</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px;"><div class="rc" data-hveid="54" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/17/ohio-who-bought-the-legislature/" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ohio: Who Bought the Legislature? | Diane Ravitch's blog</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/17/ohio-who-bought-the-legislature/</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&oq=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&aqs=chrome..69i57.1654j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b4" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ7B0IODAE" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px !important; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQqR8IOTAE" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6WlrA3wXkVMJ:https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/17/ohio-who-bought-the-legislature/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></li></ol></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jul 17, 2015 - </span>... money-yes, tax money Tax <span style="font-weight: bold;">funds</span> have likely made White Hat <span style="font-weight: bold;">Charter school</span> operator <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span> and ECOT operator <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill Lager</span> very, very rich. ... The charters, that these fine, civic-minded gentlemen <span style="font-weight: bold;">operate</span>, generally ...</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="60" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2010/12/19/big-donors-fuel-campaign-fundraising-surge.html?sid=101" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Big donors fuel campaign fundraising surge | The Columbus Dispatch</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">www.dispatch.com/.../big-donors-fuel-campaign...</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&oq=David+Brennan+and+William+Lager+operate+scores+of+charter+schools+whose+fund&aqs=chrome..69i57.1654j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b5" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ7B0IPjAF" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; 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border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MighYvn63bsJ:www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2010/12/19/big-donors-fuel-campaign-fundraising-surge.html%3Fsid%3D101+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></li></ol></div></div><div class="crc" style="display: inline-block; position: relative; margin-left: 4px;"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:5;ri:;site:dispatch.com" data-async-trigger="cra-5-filled" jsaction="crd.tglpop" data-ved="0ahUKEwj05prA3IzNAhUF6SYKHRt0BfYQ5CsIQTAF" style="display: inline-block; cursor: pointer;">The Columbus Dispatch<span class="Bs" style="border-width: 4px 4px 0px; border-style: solid; width: 0px; height: 0px; top: 8.5px; position: absolute; margin-left: 6px; margin-top: -3px; border-color: rgb(170, 170, 170) transparent !important;" /></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Dec 19, 2010 - </span>Outgoing Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, <span style="font-weight: bold;">whose</span> office enforces Ohio ... <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan and William Lager operate scores of charter schools</span> ... primary bankrollers of Ney's defense <span style="font-weight: bold;">fund</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">operates</span> coal mines that are ...</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="67" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/10/187895/october-charter-school-investigations%E2%80%94tales-fraud-mismanagement-and-mis" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">October Charter School Investigations—Tales of Fraud ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; 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Raising test <span style="font-weight: bold;">scores</span> became an obsession. ... Imagine <span style="font-weight: bold;">operates</span> 67<span style="font-weight: bold;">charter schools</span> in 11 states and the District of Columbia. ... Ohio's two largest for-<wbr />profit charter operators: “<span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span> of White Hat Management and ...</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="75" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://plunderbund.com/2015/07/22/oil-and-water-dont-mix-what-about-promotion-and-regulation/" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Oil and Water Don't Mix. 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Meanwhile, White Hat owner <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span> was quietly contributing ... About 10 years ago, I attended an ODE meeting <span style="font-weight: bold;">whose</span> purpose was to ... With ODE, promotion and regulation of <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter schools</span> are also in ...</font></span></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 23px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="81" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.10thperiod.com/2015_07_01_archive.html" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">10th Period: July 2015</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">www.10thperiod.com/2015_07_01_archive.html</cite></font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jun 21, 2011 - </span>Cleveland's main daily newspaper exposes Ohio <span style="font-weight: bold;">charter school</span> ...<span style="font-weight: bold;">whose</span> biases against real public schools and on behalf of charter ... COLUMBUS, Ohio -- <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Brennan</span> has cast a long shadow over this year's state budget. ... <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Lager</span>, ECOT and Altair founder; $ 943,452 .... Theft of Public <span style="font-weight: bold;">Funds</span>.</font></span></div><div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div></div></div><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">diane r</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a comment by Billl Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Follow the money-yes, tax money</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax funds have likely made White Hat Charter school operator David Brennan and ECOT operator Bill Lager very, very rich. (Some out-of-state charter operators are also cashing in on Ohio’s Wild, Wild West charter industry.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The charters, that these fine, civic-minded gentlemen operate, generally speaking, perform at a pathetically low level.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brennan’s total take on tax funds for charters since the beginning is in the range of $1 billion. Lager has not been in the business as long but is within reach of $1 billion total. This is money extracted from school districts thus, harming school district students. This enormous financial drain from school districts would be more tolerable if their schools were outperforming school districts.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With their respective stables of lobbyists and their multimillions in campaign contributions, they leverage legislation which expands their charter school empires and profits.
Although they contribute a lot to political campaigns, these donations constitute a small percentage of their cost of doing business.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Plunderbund, in a July 7, 2015 issue, posted the donations that Brennan and Lager made to certain House and Senate leaders.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Speaker of the House Cliff Rosenberger:</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$12,155.52 from David Brennan in 2014
$24,311.04 from Bill Lager in 2013-14</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Speaker Pro Tempore Ron Amstutz:
$67,500 from David Brennan (and his wife, Ann) between 1998-2012
$30,000 from Bill Lager in 2010-12</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Majority Floor Leader Barbara Sears:
$10,000 from David Brennan in 2012
$40,000 from Bill Lager in 2010-13</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assistant Majority Floor Leader Jim Buchy:
$31,543.70 from Bill Lager in 2012-13
Senate President Keith Faber
$32,156 from the Brennan’s in 2012-14
$25,500 from Bill Lager in 2010-13</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This pay-to-play scenario probably explains why House leadership derailed HB 2 with Senate amendments. This derailed legislation has a modicum of charter reform, some of which would likely affect the bottom line of Brennan and Lager.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why are Ohioans not outraged about these shenanigans? Probably because they don’t know about them. Inform your fellow Ohioans.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William Phillis
Ohio E & A</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3r</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><div class="gwt-HTML" aria-hidden="false" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div class="gwt-HTML" aria-hidden="false" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/07/188231/ohio-charter-schools-werent-reporting-failing-grades">http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/07/188231/ohio-charter-schools-werent-reporting-failing-grades</a></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="line-height: 20.8px;">July 22, 2015</span></font></p><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-8 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden clearfix" style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; clear: both; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" tb_nex="tb_nex" images="images" bg-ico-categories.png="bg-ico-categories.png" background-attachment="background-attachment" initial="initial" background-size="background-size" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat"><ul class="field-items" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field-item even" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important;"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/authors/jan-resseger" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jan Resseger</font></a></li></ul></div><div class="section field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="line-height: 20.8px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="field-items" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="field-item odd" property="content:encoded" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Ohio State Board of Education, dominated by appointees of Republican Governor John Kasich, met and discussed why, as Ohio began to evaluate the sponsor-authorizers of Ohio’s charter schools, the test scores of students at online charters were quietly omitted.</font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The act is a violation of state law, as Republican chair of the state senate’s education committee, Peggy Lehner, and Republican state auditor, Dave Yost, have both confirmed.  </font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>When underlings of David Hansen, the department's director of school choice, could not adequately answer the questions</b> of Senator Peggy Lehner, who had come to the meeting of the State Board to ask questions, she demanded their boss come downstairs to the meeting room to address her concerns.</font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On Saturday, Hansen resigned from his post overseeing charter schools for the Ohio Department of Education.</b></font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is all a huge embarrassment for Governor John </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kasich. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> David Hansen’s wife, Beth, has</span><a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/08/29/states-school-choice-chief-married-to-kasichs-chief-of-staff.html" style="border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> served </a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">as Kasich’s chief of staff for some time,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> but she recently left the position to chair Kasich's campaign staff, as he plans to soon announce his candidacy for president.</span></font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Before coming to the Ohio Department of Education in 2013, David Hansen<a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/08/29/states-school-choice-chief-married-to-kasichs-chief-of-staff.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> led </a>the extremely conservative Buckeye Policy Institute, which is part of the <a href="http://stinktanks.org/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">far-right </a>State Policy Network.  </b></font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Plain Dealer</em> <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/07/inexcusable_oversight_of_onlin.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">noted </a>in a recent editorial: “A 2012 state law on evaluating charter schools clearly mandated ODE (Ohio Department of Education) to include the grades of all online charter schools when grading their sponsors—agencies with oversight over the charter schools.  Lawmakers hoped the pressure on sponsors would force them to provide better oversight of their schools… However, <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Plain Dealer</em> education reporter Patrick O’Donnell recently revealed that ODE quietly ignored that law, a revelation that shocked the state Board of Education among others.”  Because Hansen excluded the performance of online schools from his rating of sponsors, one sponsor, “the Ohio Council of Community Schools… earned the highest grade—exemplary—even though its online schools including OHDELA, which is run by the politically connected White Hat Management, earned the lowest–Fs.”</font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Patrick O’Donnell, an education reporter in Cleveland,</span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/states_top_school_choice_offic.html" style="border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> reported</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: “The evaluations of charter school sponsors, also called authorizers—the agencies that help create and oversee charter schools—are the cornerstone of Gov. John Kasich and the state’s roundabout plan to improve Ohio’s charter schools…</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The key beneficiary of the exclusion—so far—was the Ohio Council of Community Schools, a non-profit agency which collects about $1.5 million in sponsor fees a year from the more than 14,000 students attending Ohio Virtual Academy and OHDELA, the online school run by </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">White Hat Management.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></b></font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>David Brennan, owner of White Hat Management, and William Lager, the founder of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) and the private company that provides services for ECOT, Altair Management, are known to be among the state’s largest contributors to the campaigns of Ohio’s Republican elected officials.</b> It is well known that Ohio Virtual Academy (Ohio’s K12 affiliate), OHDELA, and ECOT have among the state’s highest dropout rates and notoriously low student achievement.</font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last Friday, in a<a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/will_f_grades_for_the_ecot_e-s.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> follow up </a>to the story that had broken earlier in the week<a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/will_f_grades_for_the_ecot_e-s.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, </a>O’Donnell <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/will_f_grades_for_the_ecot_e-s.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">noted</a> that when asked whether he would count ECOT’s persistently low scores in an upcoming evaluation of ECOT’s sponsor, “State Superintendent Richard Ross is refusing to say whether he will count the F grades for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, Ohio’s largest online school and one run by a major Republican contributor, in a key charter school evaluation coming soon… Though an evaluation involving ECOT is imminent, he declined to answer direct questions from <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Plain Dealer</em> about how ODE will handle failing state report card grades for the online school that receives close to $100 million in state tax dollars for its 14,600 students.”</font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Friday,<a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/17/charter-exclusion-has-yost-concerned.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> the <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Columbus Dispatch</em> reported</a> that Ohio’s state auditor, Dave Yost, “is examining how the Ohio Department of Education excluded poor student-performanc data from online charter schools when it rated the schools’ sponsors last spring.” "You don’t get to pick and choose the laws you obey," Yost said. </font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>State Senator Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat, has<a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/18/oh-charter-school-official-resigns.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> demanded </a>the resignation of Richard Ross, Ohio’s state superintendent.</b>  The Plain Dealer’s editors<a href="http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/07/inexcusable_oversight_of_onlin.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> do not spare </a>Ross in yesterday’s editorial: “If Richard Ross, state superintendent of schools, hopes to regain his credibility and make true inroads in reforming Ohio’s broken charter school system, he must explain why he allowed this to happen.  An Ohio law requires state evaluations of all online schools and requires those evaluations to be part of overall sponsor evaluations—that means honest evaluations, not cooked grades… Ross must correct course immediately.”</font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What few have said directly is that the mess is also an enormous embarrassment to Governor Kasich. Hansen’s quick resignation is clearly part of an attempt to contain the damage.</font></span></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix clearfix" style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; clear: both; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" tb_nex="tb_nex" images="images" bg-ico-categories.png="bg-ico-categories.png" background-attachment="background-attachment" initial="initial" background-size="background-size" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat"><p class="field-label" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Section: </font></p><ul class="field-items" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: left;"><li class="field-item even" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important;"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/section/public-school-shakedown-project-progressive" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Public School Shakedown - A Project of The Progressive</font></a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix clearfix" style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; clear: both; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" tb_nex="tb_nex" images="images" bg-ico-categories.png="bg-ico-categories.png" background-attachment="background-attachment" initial="initial" background-size="background-size" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat"><p class="field-label" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Topics: </font></p><ul class="field-items" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><li class="field-item even" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/topics/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Education</a></font></font></font></font></li> <li class="field-item odd" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important;"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/topics/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Politics</a></li> <li class="field-item even" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important;"><a href="http://www.progressive.org/topics/public-school-shakedown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Public School Shakedown</a></li></ul></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 20.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: 20.8px;">- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/07/188231/ohio-charter-schools-werent-reporting-failing-grades#sthash.E06OXrGA.dpuf - See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/07/188231/ohio-charter-schools-werent-reporting-failing-grades#sthash.E06OXrGA.dpuf</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">==</font></p>

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