ECOT loses again in fight to keep money

The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow’s request for an injunction or expedited appeal, even though the state’s largest charter school says it will run out of money by March.

The ruling is the latest in a string of court and administrative defeats for ECOT, which is trying to stop the state from taking back $60 million from the online charter school for unverified enrollment during the 201516 school year.

After determining that many ECOT students were not getting the stateminimum 920 hours of “educational opportunities,” the Ohio Department of Education has been deducting $ 2.5 million per month from the school’s state funding payments — a deduction set to last two years.

The Supreme Court, without an opinion, ruled 5- 1 to deny the request for injunction or expedited appeal. As has been the case in prior rulings, Justice Terrence O’Donnell, who was a keynote speaker at the 2013 ECOT graduation ceremony, was the lone justice to side with the school. Justice William O’Neil did not participate, as he has declined to rule on cases while he runs for governor as a Democrat.

ECOT argued in its request that it has no local tax dollars to provide a safety net and faces closure without court intervention, hitting a negative cash balance at the end of March. The school has argued that the state acted illegally when it began using log- in durations as a basis for calculating enrollment.

ECOT Superintendent Brittny Pierson noted in a statement that the denial is not on the merits of the case.

“We are not sure why the Supreme Court made this decision, knowing how tight our budget has become, but we will continue fighting in this case,” Pierson said. “We hope that even without an expedited hearing schedule we will get our long- awaited day in court by early next year.”

Since the lawsuit was filed, the state has also ordered ECOT to repay another $ 19 million for similar enrollment issues for the 2016- 17 school year. That order is under an administrative appeal at the Department of Education.

Both a common pleas judge and a state appeals court has rejected ECOT’s effort to stop the state from reducing its funding. The Supreme Court has not indicated if or when it will schedule oral arguments for the case.