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Education’s Gold Mine for Management Companies

Beginning in 1997, when the Ohio Legislature gave permission for the University of Toledo to sponsor the first charter schools, the number of students enrolled in charter schools has grown to 117,000 students, seven percent of the public school enrollment in Ohio. These community schools are still required to have a sponsoring agent who then appoints a school board for each school. The school board then enters into a contract with an “operator” which is usually a management company specializing in education.

Two of the largest sponsors of community schools in Ohio are Buckeye Community Hope Foundation which sponsors 48 schools and Lake Erie West Educational Service Center which sponsors 58 schools. Contracts between the state of Ohio, the sponsor and the school board of each community school permit management fees of as much as 20% to the operator and 3% to the sponsoring organization. The annual budgets for individual community schools range from $1 million to $4 million each.

Community schools in Ohio are operated primarily by 36 management companies, some of which have corporate headquarters in other states. A few of the larger educational management companies operating community schools in Ohio include Accel Schools; Breakthrough Schools; Cambridge Education Group, LLC; Concept Schools (Illinois); Constellation Schools, LLC; Edison Learning (Tennessee); ICAN Schools; Imagine Schools; The Leona Group; Mangen & Associates; National Heritage Academies, Inc.(Michigan); Performance Academies, LLC; Summit Academy Management; and White Hat Management, LLC. These 14 management companies operate 195 schools in Ohio. The remaining 178 community schools are operated by entities that have only one or two schools. In some cases the schools are sponsored by a local school district to meet special education needs.

The operating budget of all community schools in Ohio are open for public view; however, some are more difficult to find than others. Generally, the funding is a combination of state general revenue funds, education foundation grants (state money), special education money and Medicaid services reimbursement. There is no evidence in the reports reviewed of local property tax dollars going to support a community school directly, except for the few schools that are operated by local school districts.

The 373 community schools in Ohio are located in the eight major urban centers of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Youngstown, Canton, Akron, Toledo, and Dayton. The rural areas of Ohio are more likely to find students participating in an online education from their home. The one most used in southeast Ohio is ECOT. The state money that would have been given to the local school district is paid to the online school. All six districts in Washington County have students who are being educated using the online option. For more information, log on to the Ohio Department of Education website, www.ode.state.oh.us and choose the community schools link.

The primary populations served by community schools in Ohio include, children who are economically disadvantaged, minority races, non-English-speaking, children with a mental health diagnosis such as ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder (formerly Asperger’s). Some Community Schools operate as “drop-out prevention centers.” Some STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) schools are community schools. In all cases the state money that would have gone to the school district in which the child resides, goes to the community (charter) school instead.

The Ohio Legislature has been adding structure and oversight to the community schools over time. Three bills relating to community schools are offered in the current General Assembly (132nd). House Bill 21 will require the state to verify actual enrollment in Community Schools. This is important as state funding is based on the number of students enrolled. The others are House Bill 87, which requires audits for community schools and Senate Bill 39, which requires state funding to be deducted back from a community school and returned to a local school district if an enrolled student does not actually attend. On the surface, these seem like very common sense measures that have not been in place over the 17 year history of charter schools in Ohio. In addition, the 2018-2019 state budget includes increases in excess of 20% for community/charter schools in Ohio. The same state budget contains flat or reduced funding for public school districts. (Source: www.ohio.gov/budget).

Community schools need not represent the end of public education in Ohio; if, voters are aware and take steps to voice their support for public education operated by locally elected school boards. While public schools have challenges, the answer is not to move toward a statewide private school model. The Trump Administration has stated that their goal is to absolutely move in this direction in the next federal budget.

The real battle will be at the state house level as the federal department of education will likely “block grant” the dollars to each state and leave the details to each state government. Concerned voters need to call, email or write to their local state representative or senator and voice support for public school districts and increased scrutiny of management companies operating community schools.

The dollars that are being spent on out-of-state management companies could well be used to improve Ohio’s public schools; and yes, the same “innovation” that community schools offer can be allowed in public school districts, if the legislature will enact laws to make it so.

Teresa Porter lives in Marietta.

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