White Hat Management, the once-prolific Ohio charter school operator and early advocate for school choice in the state, is leaving the charter school business.
The company has been steadily losing contracts over the past few years in the competitive market.
Chad Aldis with the pro-charter research group Thomas B. Fordham Institute said the company’s exit is symbolic of the state’s charter school industry.
“They had that large megaphone and were always under scrutiny and under examination by folks as what charter schools in Ohio were. But certainly many of the schools that White Hat created are still serving kids across the state,” he said.
Akron industrialist David Brennan founded White Hat in 1998. It was once the third largest for-profit charter school operator in the U.S. Brennan was instrumental in helping shape Ohio’s initial charter school policy.
