The man in charge of oversight of charter schools in Ohio, David Hansen, resigned in July after the state Board of Education discovered he had been protecting some charters from receiving failing grades.
But some board members are still not satisfied he acted alone and staged a walkout at their meeting yesterday (Mon) in Columbus. State Impact Ohio’s Mark Urycki reports.
One of the members who walked out, former judge A-J Wagner is expected to submit a resolution today (Tues) asking for an independent investigator to find out who knew about the grade-rigging. He also wants to know what was behind the state takeover of Youngstown schools.Democrats suspect State School Superintendent Richard Ross or Governor Kasich are making moves to promote charter schools. One of the members who walked out is a former Republican Ann Jacobs.
“Well the buck stops with the guy or the woman who’s running anything and it’s hard to think they didn’t get direct authority. I just can’t imagine.”
Jacobs doesn’t trust an investigation by the Ohio Auditor or Inspector General. Could they be protecting fellow Republican Governor Kasich from scandal at a time that he’s running for president? The president of the Board of Education, Tom Gunlock, a Kasich appointee, doesn’t buy that..
“No, I disagree with that concept. I think the auditor in past dealings with the governor’s office has been independent in other things and I’ve said this forever, if we can’t trust the Inspector General and the Auditor Of State to do their job then we’re in worse trouble than this.”
Republicans control the state board of education as well as the state legislature so Democrats’ calls for investigations are unlikely to succeed.
On Monday the memberrs walked out of an executive session saying they weanted to be able to speak publilcy on the matter. Education Department spokesman Kim Norris issued a statement calling the walkout “grandstanding.” She said that discussion of charter school evaluations will take place in public session Tuesday.