POLITICS
WHY THE AUDITOR’S RACE MATTERS Congressman Zack Space Democratic nominee for Auditor of State Last August, I announced my candidacy for Auditor of State to shine a light on the corrupting influence of money in politics and extreme partisan gerrymandering. The Auditor is the state’s chief watchdog of taxpayer dollars, and by extension, the state’s chief anti-corruption officer. Ohio politics has been dominated in recent years by the self-interest and greed of incumbent politicians. Nothing is sacred when it comes to pay-to-play politics -- not public education, not the interests of the poor, and not healthcare. Access to a high-quality public school education is a fundamental right that must be afforded to all of our children. Our government’s failure to keep that promise to all kids -- and especially to children of color -- should weigh heavily on our conscience. While Ohio is home to some of the best universities in the world, and some of the best high schools in America, one recent report ranked Ohio’s public school system 41st out of 50 states in higher education and 36th in pre-K through 12, when factoring in cost, access, and graduation rates. Those rankings are alarming. There are many reasons for these dismal rankings, and truth be told, educational outcomes often reflect the health of an entire community. But the detrimental effects of for-profit charter schools on our public schools cannot be understated. The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, a.k.a. ECOT, an online, for-profit school, took over $1 billion from Ohio public schools between its founding in 2000 and closing in January 2018. ECOT shut down after it was unable to prove to investigators that
it enrolled as many students as it claimed; in fact, ECOT still owes Ohio nearly $80 million that it overbilled. Why was this allowed to happen? ECOT’s founder Bill Lager was a smooth political operator, and he contributed over $1 million to the campaigns of Republican politicians to keep the scam alive. My opponent in the race for Auditor, Republican State Rep. Keith Faber, was one of the chief architects of this corrupt system and did everything he could to shield ECOT from accountability. Faber took over $36,500 in campaign checks from Lager, and killed legislation that would have held ECOT accountable. He has proven that his loyalties lie with those who fund his campaign, and not with the working people who rely on public schools for opportunities in life. And while other Republican lawmakers sat on their hands -- only scrambling to solve the problem when it became politically toxic -- tens of thousands of public school students were left out in the cold, forced to transfer from ECOT after it closed in the middle of the last school year, back to traditional school districts that were already pinched by tight budgets. Ohioans should not take this scam lightly. It affected nearly every taxpayer and nearly every school district. But make no mistake, the schools and students affected most were in lower-income areas, and in districts that predominantly educate children of color. Lower-income communities in Ohio already have disadvantages when it comes to public education, and when their schools lose critical funding, the problem is exacerbated. Charter schools thrived by enrolling students of color under the guise of a better educational option than their home public school. But by transferring the money that public schools would have received from the State
The Columbus & Dayton African American • September 2018
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for educating those students, charter schools only made the structural problems these penny-pinched districts face even worse. On a systematic level, African Americans and Latinos are twice as likely to be born into poverty than their white counterparts. And due to the structural advantages faced by people of color, quality education and resulting opportunities are even more critical. This makes the scam pulled off by ECOT executives not just an egregious example of greed, but an undeniable perpetuation of racial injustice. In June, I announced a plan to finally end this charade and deliver justice for Ohio taxpayers, through the creation of a Special Audit unit in the Auditor’s office. The Stop Charter Abuse and Malfeasance (S.C.A.M) unit will investigate three simple things: First, it will determine how much Ohio taxpayers were overbilled by for-profit charter schools, by examining attendance data provided by these schools. Next, it will examine how the for-profit management companies that “managed” these schools spent our taxpayer dollars. And finally, the unit will investigate whether the Auditor of State’s office did everything it could to prevent this fraud. If the Auditor’s office was complicit, reforms must be introduced. Taxpayers deserve to know how much of their money was stolen, and they deserve back what was taken. All of us matter. And all of us deserve a government that caters to our interests, and not the interests of wealthy special interests and big campaign donors. As your next Auditor of State, I will do everything in my power to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent correctly, and -- most importantly -- to finally restore the faith that has been lost in our democracy.
The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015