Canton Repository: Charter schools subject to state's open records, meetings laws

From John Curry, April 22, 2008
Subject: Ohio Supreme Court take note....you've been one-upped!

"The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued the decision about charter schools, sees clearer evidence of Ohioans' right to track their own tax money than the Ohio Supreme Court does."

Canton Repository
April 22, 2008

Court sees need for public oversight

Private nonprofit organizations that operate public schools in Ohio must abide by the state's open records and open meetings laws. This recent ruling by a federal court, which affects charter schools in the state, is welcome for two reasons.

• The first, obvious reason is that Ohio taxpayers, who fund charter schools, can exercise oversight over those schools.

• The ruling also is cause for hope for Ohioans who support, as we do, public access to the records of private organizations that do government work.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued the decision about charter schools, sees clearer evidence of Ohioans' right to track their own tax money than the Ohio Supreme Court does.

If this sounds like a familiar issue, it is because the Ohio Supreme Court has tackled it twice in recent years, doing the public no favors in the process.

In a case that The Repository lost in 2006, the court ruled 4-3 that the now-defunct Nova Behavioral Health did not have to open its records solely on the grounds that it was funded almost entirely with public money (through what was then the Stark County Mental Health Board).

The same year, the court denied Betty Montgomery, then state auditor, the ability to see financial records of Oriana House, a private addiction treatment facility in Summit County that was funded primarily with tax money. The court fashioned a four-part test, nearly impossible to meet, for disclosure of the records of such organizations. The test included requirements that the agency be created by government or be created as a way to avoid complying with open-government laws.

This is a far cry from the federal court's ruling on Ohio charter schools. The federal court said that public access laws are among the forms of state regulation that the privately operated schools must follow.

This will be helpful support for the cause of public oversight of the public's business.

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