A new Ohio law removes the state's Department of Education from the charter school authorizing business and allows school districts, county education service centers, public universities AND qualified nonprofits to sponsor charter schools in the Buckeye State. Moreover, because nearly all of Ohio's existing charters were sponsored by the state, the new law means they need new sponsors within two years or will become orphans. To assist with the training and development of competent new charter sponsors, the legislature also earmarked some funds. The new Ohio Charter School Sponsor Institute is newly launched by the Ohio Foundation for School Choice and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, joined by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and supported by some of those state dollars and matching grants from the Walton Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goal: to recruit, prepare and help deploy about ten high-quality charter-school sponsors for Ohio over a two-year period. Though the changes ushered in by the new law bring risks - e.g. allowing a variety of organizations with varying motives to sponsor charter schools - they also create an unprecedented opportunity for boldly innovating with this unconventional way of delivering public education.
Institute to prepare new sponsors for Ohio charter schools, press release, August 13, 2003
Charter School Authorizing: Are States Making the Grade?, Louann Bierlein Palmer and Rebecca Gau, Thomas B. Fordham Institute