Senator urges federal probe of ECOT

Sen. Sherrod Brown wants U.S. Department of Education Inspector General Kathleen Tighe to probe the ECOT scandal as well as Ohio’s entire forprofit charter school industry.

The Democratic senator’s letter stems from state Auditor Dave Yost’s audit released last week that referred possible fraud by the now-closed online school to both state and federal authorities, including Tighe. The audit found that ECOT got more than $130 million in federal funds since 2000.“Ohioans deserve answers,” wrote Brown. “We trust schools to educate and prepare students, but ECOT, (founder) William Lager, and his companies have abused that trust to rig the system to enrich themselves.” Brown Brown noted that ECOT was managed by Altair Learning Management and had a major contract with IQ Innovations, both forprofit entities owned by Lager.

“Over the life of the school, ECOT made $200 million in payments to Lager’s companies,” Brown wrote. “In the 20152016 school year alone, ECOT paid $4.3 million to Altair Learning Management and $17.5 million to IQ Innovations.

“The more one learns about ECOT’s finances and practices, the more it seems that the school was an enterprise that involved self-dealing and manipulation that lined the pockets of Mr. Lager and his companies. These companies flourished while students received a subpar education and taxpayers were deceived, intentionally and repeatedly. ... We trust schools to educate and prepare students, but ECOT, William Lager, and his companies have abused that trust to rig the system to enrich themselves.”

Catherine Grant, a spokeswoman for the education department’s inspector general’s office said, “We can confirm that we have received the senator’s letter and that we are evaluating the information.”

Brown wrote to both state and federal education departments in February, asking how they would recover misspent taxpayer dollars from ECOT and Lager’s companies.

The state education department was in the process of collecting about $80 million improperly given to ECOT due to falsely inflated attendance figures. Unable to make those monthly payments and unsuccessful in getting a court to agree it had been unfairly treated, ECOT shut down in January. ECOT’s final appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court awaits a ruling that could come anytime. Brown wants the federal investigation to extend beyond ECOT: “I also urge you to investigate any systemic misuse, abuse, and lack of oversight of federal funds by for-profit management companies, sponsors, and those that manage and oversee Ohio’s charter schools. ... Unfortunately, Ohio has a long history of for-profit, privatelyowned charter schools with poor student outcomes and questionable spending practices. Between 2008 and 2014, over 40 Ohio, for-profit charter schools had audits that uncovered improper spending, with much of the improper spending involving payments to school management companies, vendors, and employees.”