ECOT backers, fearing a state shutdown, rally at Statehouse
Fueled by the belief that the very existence of Ohio’s largest charter school is on the line, hundreds of students, parents and teachers joined ECOT founder Bill Lager for a rally Tuesday outside the Statehouse.
Making a rare public appearance, Lager said ECOT exists for students “crying for an education and wants it other than a traditional public school,” and urged Ohio lawmakers to continue tax support for the embattled e-school.
Supporters waved signs bearing such messages as “Save Our School” and “I Am ECOT.”
“We are here to let them know that what we do matters,” said Chris Stanley, an ECOT employee since 2002 who was a socialstudies teacher and is now the school’s cross-curricular coordinator.
“We demand to be treated fairly under the law. We are here to save our school.”
The rally sought to show the other side of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow — not the one criticized over its enrollment figures, its use of taxpayer funds for television ads and other marketing including Tuesday’s rally, or its four-year graduation rate of less than 40 percent.
Rather, the picture painted Tuesday was of a school unfairly under siege by the Department of Education and teachers unions determined to protect brick-and-mortar schools, and as a school using innovative technology to help students who can’t thrive in a traditional school setting.
“I want to have a choice of what school I send my child to whether it be public or private or online school,” said Leah Aker, a mother of five from Strongsville. Her daughter and eldest child is a freshman at ECOT.
“She just chose it. This is her fifth year and she loves it.”
Aker and others at the rally said they are worried ECOT will be shut down by the state.
“The Ohio Department of Education, the legislators, they are trying to close it down because they feel like it is taking funding away from (traditional) public schools. I just feel like I want to have a choice.”
The GOP-controlled legislature has been strongly pro-school-choice for two decades. But even some choice supporters have grown wary of ECOT, which generated one of every six high-school dropouts in Ohio last year. Student log-in data provided by the school showed that as many as 70 percent missed so many days they could be declared truant.
Unlike a broader schoolchoice rally that drew top GOP leaders last week at the Statehouse, no lawmakers spoke at the ECOT demonstration. In recent years, a number of prominent GOP officials have spoken at ECOT graduation ceremonies, including Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, Gov. John Kasich and Auditor Dave Yost.
ECOT freshman Jazmine Hysell of Pickerington said she chose the online school “because real school wasn’t working out for me.”
“They are very flexible with time, and my grades have gotten a lot better. I can basically get up and work on work whenever I want, and I can always count on my teachers to be there when I need help.”
Lager, asked after the rally what issues he wanted to see lawmakers address soon, said, “We want to see ECOT survive. We want to succeed. We want to live. We want to continue to educate and lead the way in technology for education, and lead the way in stating that parents have the choice, the school board doesn’t decide.”
Lager runs separate technology and management companies that last year received nearly $22 million in state funding from ECOT.
ECOT has been seeking changes to state law regarding how student growth is measured, how the minimum 920 hours of education is considered, and how schools are counted toward their sponsors’ evaluations.
“The question, first and foremost, should be: Are children getting an education?” Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said later Tuesday. At ECOT, “there are a large number of people better off today than they would be otherwise.”