A Loophole?

Gov. John Kasich is a big advocate for the expansion of charter school. Unfortunately, charter schools take money from traditional public school, don't always accept students with special needs, and are often corporately owned. Charters are exempt from many rules and regulations.

WCBE has noted that the 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee that has been promoted by Kasich exempts students in charter schools.

WCBE:

...The third grade reading guarantee was a controversial issue for which Republican Gov. John Kasich fought adamantly. Now some groups are pointing out a so-called flaw in the system.

Dale Butland is a spokesperson for the liberal think tank Innovation Ohio. He says a student going to a public school and a student going to a private school with a publicly funded voucher are treated differently. If students with the vouchers fail the reading test, they get to move on to fourth grade.

Butland: “Well it’s ridiculous. When you have voucher kids – that is to say kids that get state money, taxpayer funded money – which they then take to a private school – those kids ought to be subject to the same reading guarantee that public kids are.”

John Charlton, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education, agrees with Butland....

Once again we see how unfairly children are being treated by the Republicans. Not only has the governor cut millions of dollars from funding for education, he also is allowing failing charter students to continue on to the next grade.

I'm positive that parents across the state will be very upset by this loophole for 3rd grade charter school students.