Ohio’s first charter school opened nearly twenty years ago--but Innovation Ohio’s education policy fellow Stephen Dyer said it’s only recently that the attitude around the publicly funded, privately run schools has begun to shift.
“I think people are just starting to recognize, ‘look, charters aren’t going anywhere, let’s make sure we have good ones,'" he said.
In order to strengthen the system, Dyer said a new funding formula and more transparency around that financing are necessary, along with finding a way for school sponsors to become more reliable.
"We need to make sure that the accountability is in there so that failing charter schools aren’t allowed to stay open for six or seven years, but can be shut down much quicker,” he said.
That same theme of accountability popped up in Gov. John Kasich’s recent pledge to crack down on underperforming sponsors, but Dyer said he’d still like to see the focus move more towards students and schools.