Should state’s school standards be so low?

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, Ohio’s chronically underachieving and overcharging online school, is proposing a transformation.

Not one to improve it and help it graduate more students; one to lower its standards even further so that it can stay in business.

The question Ohioans should be asking is whether state law should have standards so low as to enable such a cynical maneuver. ...

It’s safe to suggest, however, that any charter school from which 92 percent of students leave without diplomas isn’t working and shouldn’t continue to receive taxpayer support.

Lawmakers should appoint experts to set new standards for dropout-recovery schools that recognize their special challenges but still expect success for more than a fraction of students. Otherwise, why bother? As for ECOT, its latest bid to survive is a fresh demonstration of the nerve of its founder and chief beneficiary, William J. Lager.

This is the same school that got caught billing taxpayers for two-and-a-half times as many students as actually logged in and participated meaningfully.

The school is fighting the state’s effort to claw back $60 million in undeserved payments from one school year alone.

Read the full editorial from the Columbus Dispatch at bit. ly/2vkMEXK