Auditor pushing ECOT on attack ads
The state auditor’s probe to determine whether taxpayers funded ECOT attack ads against the Ohio Department of Education is heating up.
Auditor Dave Yost said he has issued several subpoenas to the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow to hand over information about who paid for the ads, which were running extensively in Columbus and other markets earlier this year. But the online charter school is “not being responsive,” Yost said.
The state attorney general’s office has appointed a special counsel in the subpoena case, Yost said.
“Ultimately, if we aren’t able to resolve this, it’s a matter that will have to be heard by a court,” Yost said. “They would say that they have been responsive. I’m not satisfied with the response.”
If Yost isn’t satisfied with ECOT’s responses to date, “this is the first time we’re hearing of it,” said Marion H. Little, an attorney representing ECOT. The school has provided written responses, documents and even a witness whom the auditor requested to interview, but then did not, Little said.
Yost’s investigation was prompted by a story in The Dispatch in June. In it, ECOT spokesman and lobbyist Neil Clark said taxpayers had funded the attack-ad blitz even as the school laid off hundreds of teachers and support staff members to prepare to repay $60 million to Ohio in overpayments for students whose educational time ECOT cannot certify. Those layoffs included 65 staff members on the help desk and call center, which helps students with computer glitches and technical problems, according to information discussed at ECOT’s board meeting this week.
Yost is particularly interested in who paid for one highly opinionated ad, in which a former ECOT student blasts the Department of Education for demanding that ECOT document that students actually do classwork online in return for state payments. ECOT maintains that it must provide only “learning opportunities,” and there is no law that says students have to do any classwork.
“The Ohio Department of Education wants to end school choice and stop parents from deciding what’s best for their children,” says the former student, identified in the ECOT ad as Lionel Morales, a 2017 graduate. The ad featured the ECOT logo and was signed “Ohio’s children.”
“Sadly, the Ohio Department of Education says many of us don’t count,” Morales says in the spot.
ECOT says it did not pay for the ad, but it hasn’t provided documents to show who did, Yost said. “On the critical commercial, they appear to be trying to defend the identity of that payer,” he said.
Normally, the auditor’s office handles subpoenas with its own in-house attorneys, said Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The attorney general takes over to represent the auditor in court, Tierney said, adding that attorney-client privilege prohibits the office from commenting on the specifics of this case. DeWine’s office appointed law firm Bricker & Eckler earlier this summer to represent the auditor in ECOT-related matters, Tierney said.
The Dispatch reported Wednesday that the appointed ECOT school board voted in July 2016 to authorize “the allocation of any funds at the (school’s) disposal” to combat “negative portrayals” through “strategic communications.” That included contracting “outlets” and others “for the purpose of conveying information to the public.” The goal was “to protect the continued existence of the corporation,” that being the charter school, which is technically a nonprofit corporation.
Yost declined to comment on whether that board action is connected to his ad investigation. “But as a general principle, I frown upon blank checks,” he said.