After the state nearly lost millions in federal grant money because of a charter school data scrubbing scandal, it’s working on creating a system that can identify the best charter schools in Ohio and award them millions of dollars to keep that success going.
Questions were raised about Ohio’s grant application after the state’s former charter school head admitted eliminating some data on failing charters.
But the U.S. Department of Education has now agreed to send as much as $71 million to Ohio, if the state proves it can be successful in helping effective charter schools continue to be successful and expand.
Chad Aldis with the pro-charter school group the Fordham Institute says this can play a big role in helping charters progress.
“Right now it’s hard for even our best charter schools to grow and you wanna make sure you have incentives lined up and part of that is allowing the best to serve more students,” Aldis said.
The feds say a key requirement will be for the state to carry out its charter school sponsor evaluations, which have been sby legislators.
