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ECOT Loses Yet Another Court Battle

photo of ECOT
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled against the now-closed Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow in a funding case earlier this month.

What was the state’s largest online charter school has lost another round in court. It’s another blow to ECOT founder Bill Lager, who’s on the hook to pay back $60 million to the state.

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow asked the Ohio Supreme Court to take up an appeal on a claim that the state Board of Education violated open meetings laws when it decided to claw back millions of dollars from the now defunct e-school. But the justices said they won’t take up the case. 

That leaves standing a lower court ruling that upheld the board’s vote because it was acting in a quasi-judicial function. 

This latest decision by the high court follows one earlier this month when it rejected ECOT’s argument that it was improper to base the school’s funding formula on actual student attendance rather than enrollment figures alone.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.