Columbus School And City Leaders Await Legislative Action

It’s been a rough school year for Columbus City Schools. The district is under investigation by the State Auditor’s office and the FBI for tampering with student attendance data and grades. And the struggling district has a history of less-than-stellar academic results. Now there’s a bill making its way through the Ohio House that aims to improve the district. Some education officials around the state say that’s great – as long as the bill stays specific to Columbus. Earlier this year Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman convened a panel of education, community and business leaders to come up with a plan to fix the troubled district. That panel came up with a list of recommendations. Some require changes in state law. One would let the district share voter approved levy dollars with charter schools in the district. “It’s not carte blanche for every charter school," says State Rep. Cheryl Grossman. She co-sponsored the bill. The Columbus Republican says charters would have to partner with the district and prove that they are worthy of the local dollars. “And that’s really important to emphasize because there are bad charter schools just as there are bad public schools," says Grossman. Grossman says the goal is to have all Columbus students attending an A or B rated school by 2025. That’s a lofty goal. Less than a third of Columbus students attend A or B schools now. “The commission acknowledges that charters are now a permanent fixture in the education landscape, and they can be a critical force for helping provide an a or b rated school to every student," says Grossman. If the bill passes, Columbus would become the second Ohio district to share local levy dollars with charter schools. Cleveland is the other. The question is, do two districts make a trend? “It could.â€? David Varda is with the Ohio Association of School Business Officials. He says his group supports school reforms in Cleveland, it does not like for that bit about sharing money with charters. “We ask that the legislature not apply that to every district in the state. If the people in Columbus have decided that this is a plan that will allow them to make their schools better we will probably take the same position of not wanting that practice to be a statewide practice but specific to this localities decision on how to many their local schools," says Varda. Varda says it wouldn’t surprise him if at some point down the line, someone would recommend making that a statewide law. But Columbus officials insist this bill is strictly local, and it’ll be good for the district. Rhonda Johnson is the president of the Columbus teachers union. “What I care about is making sure that every child in Columbus has a high quality education because our students move from our schools to charter schools and back and forth and I care about the education our students receive," Johnson says. The bill would also allow the Mayor’s office to sponsor charter schools, and it would create a new position for an outside auditor in the district – on top of the existing internal auditor.