Thank You, Governor Strickland

For years David Brennan of White Hat Management, Inc. has run some of the most notorious for-profit charter "schools" in the country--and definitely the worst in Ohio. That is about to end:

. . . .Stanford noted that this budget does not seek a moratorium on charters, unlike two years ago when such an attempt failed to win support from legislators.

But it does once again go after the for-profit management companies that some charters hire. New contracts would be prohibited, and existing ones wouldn't be renewed.

The companies would include White Hat Management, which is headed by Akron businessman David Brennan, a long-time contributor to Republican candidates. White Hat runs Brennan's Life Skills centers, Hope academies and an online charter, the Ohio Distance and Electronic Learning Academy.

The ban on for-profit management companies goes too far for Terry Ryan, who heads the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's Ohio office. The related Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is a nonprofit sponsor of charter schools.

"Quite frankly, some of the for-profits are good and some are bad," Ryan said. "But let's not throw out the baby with the bath water."

Strickland, however, is adamant. The day after his State of the State speech, he was asked about his stand during an appearance at Cleveland's Louisa May Alcott Elementary School.

"I do not believe injecting the profit motive into public education is a good thing," he said.

When the profit motive of the "non-profit" charter schools is understood by politicians who stupidly praise them, perhaps we will see a similar phenomenon. The tax-dodging non-profit corporations are definitely the more prominent threat to public education.