Plunderbund

If charter school advocates are serious about continuing with their brand of ’school choice’ in Ohio then they better get on board with some new legislation being proposed by Sen. Tom Roberts.
SB 331 would hold community schools to the same standards for student accountability and teacher qualifications as public schools. It would also […]

In a recent interview with the Columbus Education Association, Governor Strickland discussed his plans to improve Ohio’s educational system.
The first goal of his plan is “to strengthen our commitment to Ohio’s public schools and public education.” With this commitment comes “increased accountability measures for charters.”
But the Governor admits this won’t happen while Republicans control […]

In Ohio, all schools receive funds from the state based on the number of enrolled students.
With the rise of charter schools in Ohio, public schools have lost many of their students and, in turn, much of their funding to these new, often for-profit charters.
While most local public school districts have rules requiring students to live […]

In case you haven’t heard, Columbus-based Skybus Airlines shut down yesterday.
Almost immediately Matt over at Naug Blog jumped at the chance to rip on Mike Coleman and Columbus’s Democrats for helping bring the airline to town.
We shouldn’t mourn for the loss of a crappy airline service that had sloppy business model. But we should pity […]

What the hell is up with this???
The Ohio Federation of Teachers wants the IRS to investigate charter school operator White Hat Management, contending the private company has violated the terms of the tax-free status assigned to many of its schools.
The union alleges that at least 25 Life Skills Centers and Hope Academies operated by White […]

The Dispatch ran a well written and quite thorough opinion piece on Saturday that really sums up the situation with Ohio’s screwed up charter schools.
The piece was written by Thomas M. Stephens who is professor emeritus at OSU and the author of many books on schools, teaching and education.
Stephens points out that charter schools are […]

I’m almost starting to feel bad for David Brennan- he just can’t seem to catch a break.
Even Mary Taylor, our Republican State Auditor, who received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the Brennan family, is beating on Brennan and his for-profit charter school business…
State Auditor Mary Taylor slapped 19 community schools operated […]

I was out of commission yesterday, and most of the good stuff was already picked up in the rest of the Ohio ’sphere, including this nugget, which is way too important for a Central Ohio blog to neglect to mention.
Bill Todd got 22% of his current funds for his Mayoral campaign from one David Brennan. […]

Jill gives us the rundown over at Progress Ohio. We’ve covered a great deal about the charter school scam here at Plunderbund and the continued profiteering amidst failure after failure. Jill makes a very good point: charters are not bad in and of themselves. What they’ve been turned into is. […]

Matt uses Bill Todd’s recent “tear down that mall” comment as a jumping off point to toss veiled racism around. Aside: can we stop with the Ronnie pimpin’ already? Bill is jumping up and down and blaming Coleman for the demise of City Center and is using the blame game to score political […]

In 2000 the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (eCOT), a Columbus based charter school, became “the first electronic charter school in the nation to graduate students”. That same year Coletta Musick, superintendent of eCOT, was paid $124,233 and forced to quit her job because of extremely poor performance.
Jump ahead to 2005 and Ms. Musick […]

No wonder the kiddos were out in such force! The week before was National Charter Schools Week. Silly.
George says:
Because they are not bound by many regulatory requirements, charter schools have the flexibility to innovate in ways that will best meet students’ academic needs.
Yes. Innovations. Some of these innovations include the ability […]

via email from PFAW:
Although Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) has said he wants to eliminate the state’s troubled private-school voucher program, the Republican-controlled state House yesterday passed a budget maintaining the program, and the state Senate is apparently poised to do the same. The Columbus Dispatch reports on one parochial school that fails to meet […]

OK, they don’t hate poor kids. They hate investing in keeping poor kids healthy. It’s pure conjecture at this point as to whether or not they actually hate the kids themselves…
From today’s Dispatch:
The governor’s plan to provide health insurance for some of Ohio’s neediest families likely will be dropped by House Republicans to […]

Jill’s pissed. And for good reason. Seems a White Hat manager got busted off the air admitting that he lied ON THE AIR. Just a matter of time before these charlatans are exposed fully and taken down.
I’d love to know the numbers, because it seems like Brennan is a helluva […]