State of the State

(Delivered at the 2011 Ohio State Charter School Conference)

Well, another year has passed. Our community of charters continues to grow- 96,000 students last year, 113,000 this year. Our footprint in Ohio’s public education landscape is for the most part stuck in Ohio’s main urban centers… the exception of course, our statewide pioneering charter e-schools. Our performance continues to trend positively for another consecutive year. So, what’s not to like? Well, let me count the ways.

Despite a decade-long effort, you cannot starve charter schools to quality.

A direct apples-to-apples comparison of charter school funding, district to charter by geographic locale, comprehending parity, poverty and special needs funding, exposes a funding gap of more than$3,200 per student between public charter school students and public district students. That, my friends, is unacceptable. In simple point of fact, this is discriminatory. Year over year, more charter schools in Ohio are forced to close for financial reasons than performance reasons. Are charter school students worth-less?

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