Ohio Charter Schools Fact Sheet

To: Superintendents, Treasurers, Principals and other interested persons

From: William L. Phillis

Re: Ohio Charter School Fact Sheet

Date: June 27, 2006

Below is a fact sheet on Charter Schools prepared by the Coalition for Public Education:

Ohio Charter School Fact Sheet

-- 230 privately operated charter schools in Ohio

-- 71 percent of charter schools rated as failing

Rapid, Uncontrolled Expansion

Ohio’s charter school program began as a small pilot project in Lucas County (Toledo) in 1997. Today, there are some 295 charter schools in Ohio, 230 of them are run by private operators.

State Diverts Local Taxes to pay for charters

In 7 years, the state has paid more that $1 billion to the operators of charter schools. This year, the state is on course to pay more than $475 million to charter operators. Taxpayer dollars are shifted from the base funding for successful and improving public school districts to charter school operators, despite the fact that nearly 3 of every 4 charter schools that received state report cards last year earned failing marks for academic results.

Academic Performance

Of the charters that received report cards from the Ohio Department of Education in August 2005, 71 percent earned Academic Emergency or Academic Watch ratings (the state’s two lowest categories) compared to just 13 percent of traditional public schools. However, 1 in 3 charter schools were not rated because they failed to report data that is required by state law.

For-profit Companies

For-profit Companies receive a rapidly growing share of tax dollars paid to charter schools. In 2004-2005, for-profit charter operators received more than half of the funding the state takes from public schools to pay for charters. These for-profit management companies operate 31 percent of Ohio charters, yet took away 53 percent of funding for charters.

For –profit companies operated 66 schools in 2004-2005. These companies also operate the largest statewide virtual schools. Major operators include K-12 Inc., White Hat Management Inc., National Heritage Academies, Altair and Summit Academies Inc.

Federal Funding

In addition to state and local tax dollars, charter schools also receive extensive federal funding. In 2004-2005, Ohio charter schools received more that $44 million in federal funds, including ESEA Title 1 funds, federal free lunch and breakfast programs, special education funds and federal start-up grants. In 2004-2005, Ohio charter schools received at least $16.5 million in federal start-up grants alone, while funding promised to public schools via the No Child Left Behind law was never provided.

Impact on Large Urban Districts

Despite documented academic improvement, the state takes the largest amounts of money from Ohio’s “big 8” urban school districts. Deductions for 2004-2005:

Cleveland $68 million Columbus $37 million

Dayton $42 million Cincinnati $43 million

Toledo $38 million Youngstown $18 million

Akron $18 million Canton $6.2 millions

*Deductions do not include additional associated costs such as transportation, which is required.

This diversion of funds caused public districts to eliminate academic programs, close buildings, increase class size due to layoffs, and seek increases in local property taxes.

Source: Ohio department of Education and U. S. Department of Education