Pro-Charter School Contributors Fill Ohio GOP Coffers

As I noted this weekend, the latest 2007 campaign finance data shows A LOT of money pouring in to the Ohio GOP.

And, not surprisingly, a great deal of it is coming from contributors with an interest in promoting and expanding Charter schools.

As per Jill’s suggestion, here is some information on three of the top charter-school related contributors.

Name: William Lager
Number of 2007 Contributions: 15
Total 2007 Contributed: $126,000

Bill Lager is the founder of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), an online charter school based in Columbus. ECOT is managed by Lager’s company Altair Learning Management.

Name: David Brennan
Number of 2007 Contributions: 29
Total 2007 Contributed: $305,490

No surprise here- David Brennan is one of the biggest Republican donors.

Brennan?s White Hat Management group, an Akron-based, for-profit charter school company, currently operates schools in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania and is building schools in Texas, New Mexico, Indiana, New York and other states across the US.

Note: His wife Ann Brennan has also contributed $36K

Name: Carl Lindner
Number of 2007 Contributions: 12
Total 2007 Contributed: $433,505

One of the world’s richest people, Lindner and his family own the United Dairy Farmers stores as well as the Great American Insurance Company- the company after which Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park is named.

It’s well know that Carl is a big time Republican donor and fund raiser.

On top of that: “The Lindner family has supported several Cincinnati private schools, including Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, which was founded by the Lindners, and Cincinnati Country Day School.”

Note: His wife Edith has made 5 contributions valued at $51,005