If the Ohio House's version of the biennial budget makes its way into law, the state's mish-mash of a community-school (i.e. charter school) program will become a full-fledged contender for America's worst. It's up to the Senate and Gov. John Kasich to forestall that dire development - and subject this worthy program to the thorough housecleaning and comprehensive makeover it sorely needs.
Ohio's 300-plus charter schools now serve more than 100,000 youngsters, most of them low-income refugees from the state's worst district-operated schools, kids in urgent need of a top-notch educational alternative.
A handful of charters provide exactly that. Far too many of the state's community schools, however, are as educationally moribund as the district schools to which they're supposed to be alternatives - and a sizable subset of these appalling schools are run by for-profit operators more concerned with their bottom lines than with children.
Continue reading Chester Finn in The Columbus Dispatch…
(photo credit: Marcel Schoenhardt)
