The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled the Ohio department of Education may start collecting 60 million dollars from the state's largest online charter school operator. Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.
The justices voted 6-1 to allow the Ohio Department of Education to start deducting $2 and a half million each month from the state’s $8.1 million monthly payments to the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT.
ECOT argues that ODE broke the law by changing the rules on enrollment halfway through the school year. Three courts and a state hearing officer sided with the state, which says ECOT owes them the money they got for full time students they didn’t have.
ECOT Spokesperson Neil Clark says the Supreme Court should “be concerned with reining in ODE administrators who have been emboldened to believe that they can do and get away with anything, no matter what the law says.”
ODE has not commented on ECOT’s pending case with the Ohio Supreme Court.