Sponsors of failing charter schools should return public money

Companies should not profit from charter school fraud, say officials
Earlier this year, the Ohio Board of Education
requested that the failing online charter school ECOT
return $60 million in state funds after failing to
provide adequate records of student attendance in
2015-2016.1
Now, state officials are going one
step further by demanding that
charter management companies,
school sponsors and private vendors
also refund money they receive
from charter schools when those
schools are overpaid due to attendance inflation.2
Sometimes, the management companies and vendors
that do business with charter schools are connected
to the schools themselves.
For example, at least two of the companies profiting
from ECOT are owned by the schools founder, Bill
Lager. Of ECOTs over $100 million in surplus, it has
paid approximately $20 million to Lagers companies,
Altair Learning Management and IQ Innovations.3
Not only do I want to see greater charter school
accountability, but I believe that any
company profiting from wrongly-
received tax dollars should pay that
money back.
I feel ensuring a quality education
for our children should not be a
partisan issue. Moving forward, I
hope we can do a better job at shining light on the
misuse of taxpayer funds and ensuring that charter
schools operate in a transparent, accountable
manner.
1
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/ohio/articles/2017-08-
12/big-online-school-changes-leadership-amid-fight-over-funding
2
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/08/
ecot_and_other_e-schools_must.html
3
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170809/yost-moves-to-hit-ecot-
leader-in-pocketbook

New common sense bill seeks to protect domestic violence victims

Legislation would separate deadly firearms from convicted abusers at judges discretion
In an effort to better protect victims of domestic The Domestic Violence Victim Protect Act creates a
violence, Reps. Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) and state-level enforcement mechanism that would
Janine Boyd (D-Cleveland Heights) recently unveiled require an individual to transfer their firearms to a
legislation requiring those convicted of a domestic law enforcement agency or a federally licensed
violence crime or served a civil protection order firearms dealer within 24 hours of the issuance of a
(CPO) to temporarily turn over their firearms to law court order. The legislation also adds federal law to
enforcement. Ohio statutes by prohibiting gun possession by
criminals convicted of misdemeanor domestic
According to Center for American Progress, the most violence charges and by those subject to permanent
dangerous time period for victims in abusive protection orders.
relationships is immediately after they file a civil
protection order.1 Additionally, the risk of homicide at Separating deadly weapons from a domestic abuser
the hands of an intimate partner increases eight helps protect victims during a dangerous time period.
times when a gun is in the home.2 By stopping gun violence before it starts, we can stop
burying innocent people who should have been
Dubbed the Domestic Violence Victim Protection legally protected under a CPO. I feel its simply
Act, the lawmakers proposal seeks to address this common sense: domestic abusers should not have
volatile time period by allowing judicial discretion in access to guns.
cases of temporary protection orders allowing a 1
judge to order the surrender of firearms while a http://genprogress.org/voices/2016/06/14/43887/when-guns-
restraining-orders-and-domestic-violence-collide/
temporary restraining order is in effect. 2
https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/
GunsStalkersBrief-3.pdf