The state Department of Education can start collecting $60 million from Ohio’s largest online charter school. This comes after the Ohio Supreme Court decided not to grant an injunction. However, the fight is far from over.
The justices voted 6-1 to allow the Ohio Department of Education to start deducting $2.5 million each month from the state’s $8.1 million monthly payments to the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow.
ECOT argues that state broke the law by changing the rules on enrollment halfway through the school year. But three courts and a state hearing officer sided with the education department, which says ECOT owes back the money for overcounting full-time students.
ECOT spokesman Neil Clark says the Supreme Court should “be concerned with reining in ODE administrators who have been emboldened to believe that they can do and get away with anything, no matter what the law says.”
The education department has not commented on ECOT’s pending case with the Ohio Supreme Court.