I am a conflicted man.
Professionally, I lead Ohio’s auditing staff, a team of financial experts whose job it is to verify that tax dollars are being properly spent and to root out any misuse or theft of public money. That includes charter schools.
Yet personally, I’m a strong proponent of the charter school movement. I believe in the lifetime benefits of school choice and affording every parent the ability to choose the school that will best serve their children.
My friends sometimes question how I can be so tough on charters when I personally support them.
The answer, I tell them, is simple: We don’t play favorites. We can’t. We shouldn’t. Doing so would erode the public’s trust in our office, which we must faithfully and ardently protect. To ignore the misdeeds of the few problem charters would stain the great work of many. Turning a blind eye to the problems in a charter school, or any school, would mean that we failed our children, which is never an option.
It’s a conflict public officials often face when their official duties require them to make decisions that run counter to their personal beliefs.
The mission of the Auditor of State’s office is to keep governments and schools honest—to weed out the bad so the good can flourish. The accountability and transparency my office provides also shines a light on the charter schools that are doing things right and meeting the true purpose of the community school system.
That purpose is educating kids. I believe that we need to evaluate the success of charter schools not with data alone, but also by considering the lives they touch. While I have cited charter schools for mismanagement or outright fraud, I have witnessed many charter successes as well. The successes don’t make easy headlines. But they are significant nonetheless.
I recently became aware of a young woman by the name of Anna Marie Ridenour. When she was ten, she knew that she loved learning, but did not enjoy attending a traditional school. It just wasn’t the right fit. She enrolled in a new online school called Ohio Connections Academy.
“What many do not understand,” she told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “is that students enroll in a virtual school for various reasons. I needed a more challenging curriculum. But some students arrive struggling academically or socially or with medical problems that make attending a traditional school problematic.”
Ridenour thrived at the online school, and today she is a math teacher there. We’ll never know where her life would have taken her, but we know that her charter school made a profound effect on her life. Stories like hers are why charter schools must remain viable and accountable.
The underlying premise of choice for students, parents, and society is rooted in the American principle of freedom. Being able to choose the best education for our children creates healthy competition that should elevate quality and lead to higher performance.
While it’s important to draw attention to problems we uncover, I’ve made it our responsibility to highlight the work of extraordinary schools. We award special citations almost weekly to celebrate those who have achieved a standard of excellence.
In keeping with that principle, my office will host a Charter School Summit on August 11–12 to share the best practices of our charter schools. Charters have different issues than their public school counterparts, and this summit will allow school leaders to receive training, share their experiences, and learn how their peers handle unique challenges.
Some days, the work of my office makes my friends happy. Other days, I frustrate or disappoint them.
In this respect, I am a man without a country. While I greatly value the choice and freedom that charter schools afford us, my loyalty is to taxpayers and our citizens, not special interests. Even those I support.
