Fedor responds to national news report of Ohio's largest failing online charter school

The highest ranking Democratic member of the House Education Committee, Rep. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), today responded to a New York Times article which reported that “more students drop out of the Electronic Classroom (of Tomorrow) or fail to finish high school within four years than at any other school in the country."

“Today’s report confirms what so many of us in Ohio already know: failing charter schools continue to defraud taxpayers while our children fall further behind. Story after story from journalists in Ohio and throughout the country detail deep problems within Ohio’s charter school industry, yet the state refuses to take serious action,” Fedor said. “How many generations of kids must we fail before politicians find the political courage to crack down on profiteers that peddle broken promises to our taxpayers, parents, teachers and children?”

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is Ohio’s largest online charter school and was founded by William Lager, a software executive with subsidiary education companies that took in nearly $23 million in tax dollars for providing ECOT services in 2014. ECOT received about $115 million in tax dollars that year.