BREAKING: More than 1 in 10 Ohio Charter Schools suspected of “testing anomalies”

Add this to the fact that 1 in 5 Ohio Charter Schools have been on the state’s lowest-performing-schools-in-the-state list since 2018 and you can see that Ohio still has a crappy charter school sector

Ok. Maybe it’s time to really cut deep into Ohio’s Charter Schools sooner rather than later.

According to the Ohio Department of Education,¹ “DEW has identified significant testing anomalies at 52 additional school buildings statewide that may result in further investigation.”

Of those 52, 37 — or more than 7 in 10 — are Ohio Charter Schools. Need I remind you that there are 340 Charter Schools currently open in Ohio. There are 2,978 traditional public school buildings.

That’s right. Ohio Charter Schools make up 10 percent of all Ohio school buildings, yet they make up more than 70 percent of the buildings where testing anomalies happened.

The state spent $125.9 million in state money for those 37 Charter Schools last year — an average of $13,250 per pupil, which made up about 81 percent of all per pupil spending in those charters.

In the 8 school districts where the remaining 15 anomalous traditional public schools reside (six of which happened in Steubenville), the state spends, on average $8,389 per pupil, which is less than 1/2 of all the spending in those districts.

In fact, if you don’t count the three schools from Cleveland Municipal School District that came back with anomalous results, the average public school district that has an anomalous school in it spends less per pupil — even with their property tax included — than the average anomalous charter school. Don’t include the one from Cincinnati as well? Publics spend almost $1,000 less per pupil. Even with their property tax revenue included.

Add that to these charts that show how charters make up a wildly disproportionate share of Ohio’s underperforming school buildings and, well, maybe it’s time to really take a hard look at this sector.

I don’t know. You’d think that after 30 years and $20 billion you could do better than 1 in 5 schools on the lowest-performing-schools-in-the-state list and 1 in 10 under investigation for forging test scores.

Think the Legislative Father of Ohio’s charter school system, Jon Husted, will get any questions about this system he set up?

Appointed Senator Jon Husted receiving he only honorary diploma ever given by the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow while it was ripping off taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars to educate kids it couldn’t prove it had.

Yeah, me neither.

I could be wrong, I suppose.

He sure as hell should!

1. I won’t use its new name