By RickCFD

October 22, 2007 2:43 PM | Link to this

The targeting of the Charter Schools News Flash � The Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has taken action against some dismal charter schools that are wasting Ohio tax dollars. Citing the Moraine Community School, according to Dann: Met only 3 of the 32 applicable indicators for school performance; Amassed persistently dismal Performance Index Scores, averaging 66.1 out of a possible 120, giving it an institutional GPA or �F�; Failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards for the past four school years; Consistently lagged behind the performance of the West Carrollton City School District on State tests. (Blogger�s note: this charter school is actually located in Dayton Ohio, not West Carrolton Ohio. I wonder why this charter school is not listed in the Dayton school district. There seems to be some unseen politics going on here.) �By any measure, this school, like those we filed suit against last week, is an utter failure� The Ohio Education Association hailed the decision by Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann to seek court orders to close down three Dayton-area charter schools for failing to live up to Ohio’s academic standards. “OEA has hoped for this kind of enforcement action to reverse the state’s long-term failure to monitor charter school programs. Finally, we have an Attorney General willing to target enforcement action against charter schools that have failed to meet standards of academic and fiscal accountability,” said OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks. Well how about that, accountability from the Attorney General. Let�s hammer these appalling charter schools! How dare these schools waste Ohio tax dollars! The Attorney General has two other Dayton charter schools in his sights, the New Choices Community School, and the Colin Powell Leadership Academy. Yet would you believe that there are at least 108 public schools listed by the Ohio Department of Education throughout the state that fall into the same utter failing bracket (and lower) as listed by their 2006-2007 performance index scores as these three charter schools? 12 of these 108 failed public schools are actually from the Dayton School District. And these municipal schools are still being allowed to continue operations with the blessings of the attorney general and OEA. Could this single sided accountability be politically motivated by our Attorney General? I guess when those utterly failed charter schools are shut down in Dayton; their students will be dispersed to the utter failing Dayton municipal schools instead. Considering that these public schools have failed the public�s trust much longer than the charter schools have been existence, where is the monitoring of the public schools? Where is the enforcement against the public school systems that have schools that failed to meet standards of academic and fiscal accountability? Where is the Mr. Dann? Where is Patricia Frost-Brooks? Where is the accountability for the state tax dollars wasted by the Dayton school system? Instead, only the charter schools are targeted. You can almost hear the battle cry at the OEA - The monopoly must be preserved and choices taken away. The inaction against the utterly failed schools in the municipal school systems (which incidentally have had more time to waste Ohio tax dollars) speaks volumes to the political grandstanding now taking place. If the Attorney General is going to shut down these failed charter schools, why then is he not holding those municipal schools, which are also �utter failures�, to the same standards? If he does, will the OEA continue to support Mr. Dann? Accountability must go both ways. There is a current campaign by some Ohio lawmakers to discontinue state funding to all charter schools including those that are successful. If funding discontinues for all charter schools, and the effective charter schools are forced to close, these Ohio lawmakers will be taking away from these charter school students inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because most likely, the Dayton schools that they would be assigned to would not be listed as an effective school by state standards. http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2006-2007/DIST/043844.PDF The children of Dayton are growing and do not have the time to wait for the Dayton school system to get its act together. The Dayton school district has been graded �Academic Watch� by reaching only 2 out of the 30 state standards. This is one less standard than the Moraine Community School that Mr. Dann says is an utter failure. It is unjust to have to send any of Dayton�s children to such a failed school system. It is also unacceptable that the state lawmakers continue to fund the failed Dayton school system and all other failed public school systems throughout the state by allowing them to continue operations with little or no accountability. Should I write to Attorney General Dann asking him if any of the failed Dayton schools are in his sights to be shut down? Or am I to assume that the inaction of the Attorney General and the OEA means that they believe that the Dayton school system is being held to an acceptable academic and financial standard? I will let Mr. Dann know that there is no question that the Dayton school system has been plagued by mismanagement, fiscal and educational failure. Many generations of Dayton children have had no other choice but to attend this utter failure of a school system. And I will ask Mr. Dann how many more generations of children will have to attend this ineffective school system. How many more politicians need to be elected until accountability for the state funds being used in those dismal public school systems is restored? There was never a need for charter schools when public school systems were held accountable for their state funding. For his information, I will also be sending Mr. Dann copies of some numbers from the Ohio Department of Education Website which show the 108 public schools throughout the state that have scored as low as and even lower than the charter schools he is targeting, 12 of which are from the Dayton school district. I will list the charter schools he has targeted so he can compare them to the ineffective public schools. I am hoping that these ineffective public schools are given the same courtesy as those charter schools. Governor Strickland believes that �Every Ohio child deserves the best possible educational experience, regardless of whether he or she attends a traditional or charter school.� If the charter schools which are already considered effective by the current State standards are allowed to lose state funding and are forced to close while the Dayton school system, which by no means can be considered effective academically or fiscally is allowed to continue operations in its current condition, there will be no way Dayton�s children will be able get the best possible educational experience they deserve. I wonder if he will reply.

By Rick

October 20, 2007 4:25 PM | Link to this

By David Hansen Parental choice in education offers the promise of improving public school systems by holding them accountable to market forces. First, charter schools and private schools innovate and differentiate their product in order to attract parents who want something for their children not offered by the public school system, such as better academics or a safer school environment. Then public schools respond to the forces of market accountability — the decisions of parents and pupils to leave their system for better offerings — by improving their product, listening better to the wants and needs of parents and better organizing their efforts toward educating children. Market accountability ensures that schools are run for the sake of educating children. Regulatory accountability � the rules, regulations, contracts and mandates created by politicians and bureaucrats as their tools for micro-managing public schools — ensures that schools instead dance to the tune of the politically powerful, in particular, teacher unions and school bureaucracies. The promise of parental choice and market accountability to improve public schools systems assumes that school systems are institutionally capable of responding to market accountability. Recently, an editorial on Ecole Kenwood in the Columbus Dispatch shows that this assumption does not hold true for Columbus Pubic Schools (CPS). Its teacher union contract keeps CPS from offering something as commonsensical to parents preparing their children for success in today�s global economy as a language immersion school. Image how the CPS teacher contract thwarts other aspects of running schools for the sake of kids as opposed to that of its teacher union. Columbus is not unique. Across the state, teacher union contracts - the epitome of regulatory accountability of schools � defeat the best attempts of public school systems to respond to the demands of market accountability in the form of parents newly empowered with school choice options. Parental choice strategies are still needed to simply save as many children as possible from our failing public schools. Unfortunately for the children left behind in public school systems, teacher union contracts are the greatest impediment to the meaningful reform promised by parental choice. For the sake of our children�s prosperity, Ohio needs to move into a new era of managing teacher resources in public schools where the mission of educating children is put before all other interests, even those of teachers. This will require the state and local school districts to fundamentally reform their teacher union contract policies to expand the reach of market accountability in the organization and functioning of our public schools and curtailing that of regulatory accountability. David Hansen is the President of the Buckeye Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization based in Columbus, Ohio.

By Chuck

October 20, 2007 8:55 AM | Link to this

The public school system, in any area one cares to mention, IS a debacle. Students are taught outright lies by people that KNOW they are lies, and then want to make big buck for doin em.

By Mary

October 20, 2007 8:18 AM | Link to this

“null”, if you are going to pile on one of the “expensive handicapped kids”, you should also pile on the athletes, band members, and maybe some gifted kids who scarf off with supplemental programs, although I do not really think gifted kids get much of anything out of school. Instead of intervention specialists, most gifted kids would probably be better off if they had appropriately trained teachers, curriculum, and grade or class acceleration - which overall should not cost more, but less.

By null

October 19, 2007 6:17 PM | Link to this

Her kid is probably one of those expensive handicapped kids that Dayton supports when the charters won’t.

By Laura

October 18, 2007 11:41 PM | Link to this

Kassandra: Why have you chosen to keep one of your children in DPS when you state you “feel for kids that have to go to Dayton schools and are subjected to their incompetence on a daily basis” and state that your other 3 children are so far ahead of Dayton because they attend a charter school? Just curious.

By Mary

October 18, 2007 10:24 PM | Link to this

This discussion about parents, schools, and students reminds me of the talk shows on this week with Bill Cosby and a Harvard psychologist. They cowrote a new book called “Come on people”. Anybody read that yet?

By Kassandra

October 18, 2007 9:45 PM | Link to this

Look Guys. I have 3 kids at a local charter school and 1 at Dayton Public Schools fo this year. The charter school is so far ahead of Dayton Public it is sad. I feel for the kids that have to go to Dayton Schools and are subjected to their incompetence ona daily basis.

By Jim

October 18, 2007 8:47 PM | Link to this

Communities get the schools that they want. If the parents didn’t want DPS to work at this atrocious level they would have demanded better discipline and output years ago instead of wanting pampering and playschool. It is the kids and the parents.

By Steve

October 18, 2007 7:01 PM | Link to this

I sure wish you boys would have stuck to the stripper blogs at least you were quasi humorous there.

By Duh!

October 18, 2007 4:39 PM | Link to this

Well, yeah! I can’t imagine why, can you???? If the Dayton School District provided good schools Charter Schools would not be needed…………..and I’m not a rocket scientist to know this is fact!

By Doolittle

October 18, 2007 4:27 PM | Link to this

Big deal. Just because it’s a charter school doesn’t mean the kids are getting a better education. It still seems to me that Dayton school kids are pretty dumb.

By OHIO & TED SUCK

October 18, 2007 3:49 PM | Link to this

This is not something for Dayton to be “proud” of. It really shows what a dump Dayton is. The Dayton public school system is a disgrace. To makeup for it…charter schools. What a joke.