For-profit charter schools criticized
Educators, Dems say schools have little accountability
6/12/2014Local educators and Democrats today criticized for-profit charter schools and Gov. John Kasich‘s support of those schools.
Polly Taylor-Gerken, a Toledo Board of Education member, and Tiffanny Adams, a teacher at Garfield Elementary and the school‘s Toledo Federation of Teacher representative, spoke out against the schools and the Republican governor at a news conference at the Lucas Democratic County Party headquarters on Madison Avenue. They said the schools have little accountability, and complained the state funnels money away from traditional public schools toward buildings run by for-profit providers.
Toledo Public Schools officials have long bemoaned that a larger percentage of state funds go toward charter schools than the percentage of students enrolled in those schools in Toledo; district officials say that while 35 percent of Toledo students attend charter schools, 40 percent of state aid goes to those schools.
Ms. Taylor-Gerken also said that the proliferation of charter schools has created inefficiencies, with fewer students in the city than 10 years ago, but dozens more school buildings. She said she isn't against charter schools that are successful; Toledo School for the Arts, a nonprofit school based near the county Democratic building in Uptown, consistently scores highly on state tests.
— Nolan Rosenkrans