Letters to Lawmakers, Part 3

The Letters to Lawmakers Series

Letters to Lawmakers Part 1

Letters to Lawmakers Part 2

Letters to Lawmakers Part 3

Letters to Lawmakers Part 4

Letters to Lawmakers, Part 3

This is the response I received from State Senator Sue Morano:

Dear Mr. RickCFD,

I recently received your e-mail concerning the funding of private schools in the Cleveland area. Thank you for taking the time to write me on this issue.

Your children’s charter schools effective rating in the recent Department of Education Report Card is encouraging; it is also the exception in this state. 57% of all charter schools are considered failing compared to 8.5% in traditional public schools. With such an alarmingly high number of charter schools failing, Governor Strickland has proposed a moratorium on all new charter schools. Charter schools in Ohio need to be held accountable to Ohio’s academic standards and to the $500 million they will collect in tax money this year.

Once again, thank you for your letter. If you have any further concerns or comments please do not hesitate to contact my office.

Sincerely,

Sue Morano
State Senator
13th District

And my reply back to State Senator Sue Morano:

Senator Morano:

I find your response disappointing. You chose not to answer the questions and concerns I had; instead you sent me some unfairly curtailed statistics comparing charter schools to all of the public schools in the state.

It always troubles me when politicians who have seemingly made up their minds on one side of an issue choose to avoid questions and concerns to the contrary. More times than not, I am simply offered a set of “apples to oranges” statistics instead.

From your response it appears that you do not support charter schools. You indicate that they must be held accountable. The statistics that you gave lumped together all charter schools, good and bad, and compared them to average report card of all public school systems, good and bad, in the State. Unfortunately, this is an unfair comparison.

I would venture to speculate that most charter schools operate within municipalities where the public school systems have failed. The ODE statistics will show this in the Greater Cleveland area. There is little need to have charter schools in any municipality where the public school system is in good shape. It would be a hard sell for the charter schools to convince parents to send their children to a charter school when the municipal school system is already effective and tax dollars are not wasted.

In the Greater Cleveland area, the charter schools as a norm operate mostly within the city limits and those suburbs where the municipal school systems have failed. The charter schools offer a choice to the citizens where there have been none before.

A more accurate assessment of charter schools performance can be made by comparing them to the municipal schools in the city they both serve, and then the statistics would be more accurate. Then we can talk accountability.

I have saved the opponents of charter schools on the education committee’s some time and effort. I have put together statistics concerning the Cleveland school system as compared to the charter schools that operate within the city limits using the current data from the ODE website.

There are 105 schools listed for the CMSD.

4 Closed, 101 Open. 2 of the open schools were not rated = 99 rated schools.

Of the 99 rated schools, only 7 schools (7.07%) had a satisfactory state report card (effective and above), 49 schools showed continuous improvement (49.49%), 43 schools (43.43%) had an unsatisfactory state report card (academic watch and academic emergency).

20 Academic Emergency - 20.20%

23 Academic Watch - 23.23%

49 Continuous Improvement - 49.49%

5 Effective - 5.05%

2 Excellent - 2.02%

There are 47 Charter Schools total listed in Cleveland.

5 Closed, 42 Open. 5 of the open schools not rated = 37 rated schools.

Of the 37 rated schools, only 7 schools (18.91%) had a satisfactory state report card (effective and above), 9 schools showed continuous improvement (24.32%), 20 schools (54.05%) had an unsatisfactory state report card (academic watch and academic emergency).

12 Academic Emergency - 32.43%

9 Academic Watch - 24.32%

9 Continuous Improvement - 24.32%

5 Effective - 13.51%

2 Excellent - 5.40%

Almost 19% of the charter schools in Cleveland reached the level of effective and above. One could argue that this is unacceptable. But compared to the Cleveland School system who only has 7% of its schools at effective and above, charter schools are ahead of Cleveland by 2 1/2 times. What is being done to hold the public schools accountable?

Cleveland has only met 4 out of the 30 state standards. That amounts to only 13%. But instead of being held accountable, the City and its newspaper celebrates the school systems good news concerning their state report card. The Cleveland Schools have never received an effective rating from the state since the report card system began in 1999, yet they are allowed to continue operations. Where it the accountability?

The statistics from the ODE also show that the charter schools with the poor ratings are many times operating in the same zip codes as the Cleveland schools with the poor ratings. In most cases, both charter and Cleveland schools have similar ratings in the same areas served, yet opponents of charter schools have turned a blind eye to the accountability of the public schools. (I have the statistics by zip code entered onto an excel program if you are interested).

I believe that if the rest of the charter schools in the state are compared respectively to the municipal school systems in their cities of operation, your statement of my children’s charter school being an exception to the norm will be proven invalid. In time I will have those statistics put together as well.

It is my hope that the State’s education committees from house and senate will treat municipal school systems with as much scrutiny as they are allotting the charter schools. But thus far, I have seen very little concern over the accountability of the failed public school systems in the state such as Cleveland. Cleveland has yet to achieve an effective status.

If my children’s charter schools are closed because of the politics and posturing of those who oppose charter schools, my children would be subjected to a Cleveland school in our neighborhood that is not considered effective by the state. If that happens, I will be bringing my children to your office to meet you in person so you could explain to them why it was in their best interest to shut down their effective charter schools while leaving them with a less than satisfactory school in its place.

Ohio lawmakers still allow an unconstitutional method of funding public school systems to continue. This practice has been allowed to remain in place for many years since the Ohio Supreme Court first made their ruling. I as well as many other Clevelander’s have been subjected to having our taxes raised by voters who do not own property, and then watching those tax dollars go down the drain while having no say on who is appointed to the school board. And through it all, the state lawmakers allow the failed Cleveland Public School system to remain operational in its current state, receiving funds from state tax dollars because accountability is seemingly a low priority compared to charter schools. As a taxpayer, I find this most deplorable.

Yes, I believe the citizens of Ohio deserve accountability from their elected officials.

I still hope that you would have the courtesy to answer my original questions and concerns from my previous correspondences.

Sincerely,

Mr. RickCFD

To date, State Senator Morano has not replied back.