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The Ohio Department of Education Wins Its Case Against ECOT -- For Now

photo of ECOT board president Andrew Brush
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
ECOT Board President Andrew Brush addressed a crowd in front of the Statehouse today.

A state hearing officer has dealt another blow to Ohio’s largest online charter school. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports it’s the latest move in the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow's  ongoing battle with the state.

Before several hundred students, parents and staffers in a rally at the Statehouse, ECOT board president Andrew Brush said the school was in a fight for the future of education in Ohio.

“And in this fight, we don’t want special treatment. We merely want the right to fair treatment and equal protection under the law," Brush said.

Just hours later, a state hearing officer sided with an Ohio Department of Education audit showing that ECOT could prove only about 40 percent of the more than 15,000 full time students the state paid it for. He ordered ECOT return $60 million, or the money could be deducted from future payments.

ECOT had appealed the state education department's claim, saying it unfairly changed how students are to be counted. The state board of education will take up the hearing officer’s ruling at its June meeting. 

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.