Ohio White Hat Charter management refuses to testify before state legislature.

madfloridian

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon Jun-07-10 10:05 PM
Original message

Ohio White Hat Charter management refuses to testify before state legislature.

Edited on Mon Jun-07-10 10:06 PM by madfloridian

This is a charter school group which like others gets public taxpayer money. They are being sued by some of their own schools who are unhappy with management.

If they get public money they should be forced to answer to the public.

To make matters worse the school management says if the schools leave their group, there will be a price to pay. White Hat management says they will still own all the "buildings, furniture, books, curricula and equipment."

White Hat is owned by David Brennan, and yes, he really does wear a white hat.
http://www.whitehatmgmt.com/about/leadership/brennan/

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Charter school operator on hot seat

The state's biggest charter school operator last week refused to testify at a state legislative hearing into whether Ohio's laws give too much power to for-profit charter school companies.

It is being sued by 10 of its charter schools in Cleveland and Akron, who say the company spends too little on education, keeps too much in profit and is too secretive about it all. The governing boards of the 10 schools also claim that protections in Ohio law for charter school managers are unconstitutional and render the governing boards "virtually impotent."

The suit asks a court to:

-Void the schools' contracts with White Hat.

-Prevent White Hat from removing anything from the schools.

-Declare the state law granting White Hat Management its operating authority unconstitutional.

The company really has threatened the schools about the property.

Ohio White Hat Charters....what was bought with public money now belongs to them.

In a suit filed Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, the school boards argue the law is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to White Hat, one of the largest charter school operators in the nation. The company was founded by David Brennan, a prominent Akron businessman and Republican donor.

The suit charges that White Hat lobbied the state legislature for changes to the charter school law in 2006 that made it possible for White Hat to fire any school board that tries to sever ties with the management company.

Nor is it financially feasible for a charter school to switch operators because White Hat's contracts state that it owns the school's property, furniture and equipment � even though they were all paid for with tax dollars, according to the complaint.

''Essentially, White Hat created an educational model where tax dollars flow to the private corporation with little room for oversight or control by the schools' governing bodies,'' said a news release accompanying the filing of the lawsuit.

"Further, the law makes White Hat's receipt of tax dollars hard to stop."

The law needs changing, and these schools that receive public money must be held accountable to the public.

I fear there is a rush to lift the caps on the number of charter schools in a state...a requirement of getting the money from the DOE. There needs to be more thinking about this, and less rushing headlong into plans that have not been proven to work...especially plans that involve public money.