Stephen Dyer writes about the number of charter schools on Ohio’s lowest-performing schools list:
In the 2024-2025 school year, there were 340 Ohio charter schools in operation. And 114 of them ended up on the CSI list. Nearly 6 in 10 were on that list since 2018.
Dyer notes that about 1 in 3 charter schools make the lowest-performing list. By contrast, about 5% of public schools make the list.
And then Dyer asks: So why are charter schools offered as the solution when public schools struggle?
Charter Schools are now a $1.6 billion a year program, with only expansion and zero additional accountability being proposed by the current crowd at the statehouse and Governor. That money comes directly out of the same funding pot meant to fund kids in Ohio’s traditional public schools — preventing the state from fully funding its own formula to provide resources to traditional public school students.
Neighboring Kentucky has ZERO charter schools:
In fact, a recent ruling by a Kentucky judge suggests that charter schools are not public schools, and therefore can’t receive public money.
“The central question in this constitutional analysis is whether the privately owned and operated ‘charter schools,’ which are established by this legislation, should be considered ‘common schools’ or ‘public schools’ within the meaning of Sections 183, 184 and 186 of the Kentucky Constitution? A review of the case law, and the plain language of the Kentucky Constitution itself, yields the inescapable conclusion that ‘charter schools’ are not ‘public schools’ or ‘common schools’ within the meaning of our state’s 1891 Constitution,” Shepherd wrote.
** checks notes ** turns out public schools are much more robust and comprehensive than they’ve been given credit for in the history of American public education.