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Teachers School Obama on Failed Ohio Charter Schools
Ohio Federation of Teachers President Sue Taylor today delivered a letter to President Barack Obama to educate him about the vastly failing charter school program in the Buckeye State. The letter comes in response to numerous accolades by the president for expanding the privately run charter schools nationwide.
“While charter schools may be working in other states, they have largely failed in Ohio,” Taylor points out in her letter to the president. “We were heartened, therefore, to hear you call for charter school accountability.
“Your focus on eliminating charters that do not produce results for students could rid Ohio of many failed operations. We hope that our state’s experience will highlight the need to carefully consider whether the expansion of charters, in the absence of demonstrable benefits and real accountability, is a path that should be pursued.
“Ohio’s students, parents and taxpayers desperately need the type of accountability you have called for,” Taylor wrote on behalf of OFT’s 20,000 members.
“As educators, we have seen the damage to students caused by a largely unaccountable and out-of-control charter sector.”
The letter detailed research of charter school academic performance data that shows 2 in 3 charter schools (64 percent) earned a failed rating on last year’s state report cards. Despite cuts in programs and staff resulting from the diversion of state tax dollars from traditional public schools to charter school operators, public school district academic results are far better than charter schools.
“Given what we’ve seen in Ohio, where the push for quantity often has surpassed the commitment to quality, we appreciate the president’s call for greater accountability for charter schools,” Taylor said.
“We need him and his staff to understand that when he talks about expanding charter schools, Ohio parents, teachers and taxpayers bristle because of their experience with our state’s failed charter schools.
“Ohio’s charter school program is flawed to benefit the charter school operator rather than the children he enrolls.”
Profiteers have found fertile ground in Ohio where more than $3.4 billion public tax dollars have been spent on this vastly failed experiment.
“Any serious measure of charter school accountability will be welcomed in Ohio. Charter school expansion will not.”
Taylor also delivered a copy of the letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who is scheduled to visit Columbus tomorrow.
Read the letter from OFT President Sue Taylor to President Obama.
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