State Rejects Portion Of Federal Charter School Grant

The state has turned down 22 million out of 71 million dollars in federal charter school expansion grant money, saying enough potential schools will not meet the high performance ratings needed to qualify. The grant money is for new schools opened by sponsors receiving ratings of "effective" or "exemplary." Those are the two highest of five possible ratings on new state sponsor evaluations. Ohio officials say only five of 65 sponsors achieved "effective" ratings and none were rated "exemplary" last fall. Ohio schools superintendent Paolo Demaria told the U.S. Department of Education requiring higher performance ratings will increase accountability and create "high-quality community schools." Ohio's former charter schools chief David Hansen resigned in 2015 after acknowledging he omitted data of poor-performing online charter schools in order to make the evaluations of their sponsors look better.