Dettelbach raps Yost, claiming inaction on ECOT

THE AD: “Every Last,” a 30-second TV from Democratic Ohio attorney general candidate Steve Dettelbach WHERE TO SEE IT: Information not immediately provided by Dettelbach campaign VIDEO: Republican state auditor and attorney general candidate Dave Yost on stage at an ECOT graduation, then walking out of the auditor’s office; Dettelbach in court and standing with police officers. SCRIPT: “While the corrupt charter school company ECOT stole millions from taxpayers, Auditor Dave Yost was supposed to be watching them. [Yost]: ‘These funds have to be accounted for. Every last dime.’ But after Yost took $29,000 from ECOT executives, he shut down an investigation into their finances ... even gave them an award. Steve Dettelbach prosecuted corrupt politicians — Democrats and Republicans. Ohio cops trust Dettelbach for attorney general.” ANALYSIS: Dettelbach, a former federal prosecutor, has been relentless in his efforts to highlight the failure of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, an online charter school that couldn’t show that it was teaching the number of students it was charging taxpayers to do. The school closed its doors this year, due in no small part to efforts by Yost, who in the past two years has gone after ECOT over television ads the school bought for political reasons and conducted a full audit, saying the school “submitted information to (the Department of Education) in order to get paid that it knew to be false.” Yost also referred the matter to the U.S. attorney’s office and Franklin County prosecutor for possible criminal charges. Dettelbach’s ad, however, focuses on Yost’s conduct toward ECOT before 2015, at which point the school had already been in business for 15 years. It paid $200 million to two private companies owned by school founder Bill Lager. He and other connected with ECOT made $2.5 million in political contributions. Ninetytwo percent of that money went to Republicans, including $29,000 to Yost. Proving an overt cause-and-effect involving campaign contributions is always difficult. While Dettelbach’s ad said Yost shut down an investigation into ECOT’s finances, the reality is more nuanced. In 2014, Yost launched an investigation after a school administrator reported that ECOT was submitting false attendance information. But instead of conducting a formal audit, Yost entered into an “agreed upon procedures engagement,” in which his office and ECOT officials agreed on how to limit the scope of the probe. In other words, Yost negotiated the parameters of his investigation with the entity he was investigating. As part of the deal, Yost agreed to accept teachers’ assurances that students were “offered” instruction instead of requiring the school to show that students were logged onto computers at home had actually received learning opportunities. Critics say requiring the latter would have unearthed problems with ECOT years earlier than they were.