I recently compiled a spreadsheet of every vote taken by the Ohio House of Representatives in 2015. It was extremely tedious and time-consuming, so hopefully someone else out there who needs this information can benefit from downloading my data set here rather than having to sort through all those session journals themselves.
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As students begin to settle into a new school year, educators, armed with fresh lesson plans, curriculum and standardized tests, are welcoming their students back to their respective schools. But one Ohio education official will not be joining them.
David Hansen, who was the school choice director for the Ohio Department of Education, resigned in July after it was discovered that he omitted failing grades from charter school evaluations. Some believe this indicates a larger problem with Ohio’s standards for charter schools.
“We have long suspected that there’s problems with charter school accountability,” said Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. “When we saw that there had been some manipulation of data, we weren’t necessarily shocked, but we of course expected something to be done about it.”
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An education bill currently being considered by the Ohio House could clear up some controversy surrounding charter schools and their funding.
House Bill 2, a piece of legislation that was introduced to the Ohio House of Representatives by Reps. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, and Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, details proposed changes in how community and charter schools are funded as well as how their progress and standards are measured.
Charter schools are unique because, like public school districts, they receive government funding from tax dollars but are often privately owned and receive additional funding from sponsors. According to William Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, this has left them in a largely unregulated state since charter schools became legal in Ohio in 1997.
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