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Finally! Watch them wiggle and get off the hook. Youngstown Academy of Excellence (LOL) will especially escape because of their corporate backing. They are part of the Mosaica chain schools.

Those with unlimited funds like White Hat managed charters constantly circumvent the laws that public schools face!

I know charter schools have a bad rep....And I understand BOTH sides. I also understand why people get so defensive when it comes to talking about charter schools. But the bottom line here is....How about giving some of these NEWLY educated teachers a chance at getting into the "Pubic" school systems so we wouldn't be labeled as being against the public schools and teaching the "wrong way." You've got teachers that are way to old to still be teaching in the system, but yet you keep them there (even after retirement) to save a few bucks??? Where does that fall into the perfect world of teaching? I just don't get it. The state of Ohio (in general) has teachers in the classrooms that are (ole themselves) still teaching with old teaching methods. Sit down, read a story, answer questions - all because we won't hire a younger new teacher - who by the way, has recent education on how children learn. Maybe if the system worked correctly - you retire, new teachers come in - some of us wouldnt be forced to turn to the so called "terrible" charter schools. The whole thing frustrates me.

How about YCSD? I'd love to hear the outcome of an HONEST audit on them!

Jennifer,
I understand that you feel the YCSD treasurer should be more open with the public. But she is very honest, and her reports to the state are honest. The difficulty for citizens would be in getting your hands on them, and then understanding them.
You probably know that the treasurer is accountable straight to the board, not to the superintendent. Have you not felt the tension that is often apparent between the superintendent's office and the treasurer?

Do you know that Youngstown City Schools does not have retire/rehire for teachers? They only do this for administrators.

It is difficult for teachers to retire before sixty-five when they are eligible for medicare, because they are worried about losing the health care insurance they have while working. If something opens to make health insurance more affordable, I believe more teachers will retire, and take less active employment. Also they have been paying into a teachers' pension that offers an incentive for them to stay to 35 years instead of retiring at 30. The retirement system must do this to ensure the stability of their investments vs. payout. At one time, school systems offered "buyouts" to teachers to get them to retire early. The pension system responded by making this very expensive for a system to do. The number of early retirements, and the long lives people have now, were eating into the pension fund.

Carolyn Funk just signs the checks. She has no say in how the money is spent. A large portion of the tension between her and Webb is the simple fact that Carolyn still believes in obeying the laws and is uncomfortable lying and withholding information from the public. I've stopped calling her to ask fo information because she gets in trouble for speaking to me, whether she answers my questions or not. The audit I would like to see would go though a full list of employees and where they work and what their duties are and how much they are paid out of what fund. I'm sure there would be many glaring examples of people downtown who have no real duties or even a genuine job description. Not only would they find people with big salaries for no work, they'd find duplication of effort being paid out of seperate funds. The current board is a joke. The ones who are firmly in Webb's pocket go so far in their efforts to avoid any opposition to her decisions that the board members capable of independent thought aren't informed of special sessions! I'm hoping four new members will make enough of a difference to put an end to that kind of nonsense.

Why does the vindicator publish more articles about Charter school than the failing public schools? Please remember that is government schools were doing thear jobs there would be not need for charter schools. Also knowing that charter schools now educate children for less than half of the cost of public or government schools why doesn’t the Vindy look at where the other half of charter school money is being spent in the public sector? The answer is quite simple, most of the Charter news is generated by agenda driven reporters of organized labor, OEA and NEA as they have big money behind them. Dayton Public Schools recently spent $750,000.00 for an ad campaign to persuade parents to keep their children in public schools.

These organizations would not have problems with Charter schools if they were unionized. The never ending campaigns against charter schools are designed to divert attention away from the poor performance of public / government schools.

As we know, Youngstown government schools have one of the poorest "Big 8" graduation rates in the state and yet it is more important to them to criticize Charter schools than fix their own problems. But why…? Because the education system is broken and the only people who are ignorant to this fact are the administrators of these systems. Admitting that there is something wrong with education would be admitting that they are not doing their jobs.

So what is the answer? Until tax payers demand educational accountability and hold educators responsible for the education and graduation of your children, you will continue to get 53% graduations rates, higher administrative cost,tax increases and apathetic superintendents who are powerless to effect meaningful change towards educating our children to meet the challenges ahead.

I hate when replies to posts are written point by point, but Randy has so many inaccuracies in his post, that I don't know where to begin otherwise.
Randy says:
"Why does the vindicator publish more articles about Charter school than the failing public schools?"
Yet, the Vindicator never published any story about the failures of Charter Schools. They are very protective of the local charter schools for unknown reasons. The people who post on these discussion boards are not on the staff of the Vindicator. We post entries from the other newspapers in Ohio, because they HAVE revealed the problems with Charter Schools, unlike the Vindicator.

Randy says:
"Also knowing that charter schools now educate children for less than half of the cost of public or government schools why doesn’t the Vindy look at where the other half of charter school money is being spent in the public sector?"
But the state gives charter schools more funding than public schools. The state creates a fund for each district based on the number of students and the relative poverty or affluence of the district. Youngstown usually receives about $4,000 per pupil, but the state removes $5,300 or more for each student that leaves to attend a charter school. Boardman Schools receive about $1,200 from the state, but the state removes $5,300 for students who leave for a charter school. The state gives charter schools much more tuition (all deducted from the funds schools use to operate) for special education students, so many students are identified as needing special education after enrolling in a charter school. In addition, the state forces the public school to pay for all the transportation of charter school students. In addition, charter schools receive money from federal grants and contributions from the gullible. In short, they do not do the job for less.

Randy says:
"Dayton Public Schools recently spent $750,000.00 for an ad campaign to persuade parents to keep their children in public schools." but fails to add that this campaign was a desperate self-defense to the deluge of advertising the city was experiencing from charter schools. The story is easy to check out on the internet. Here in Youngstown, folks on the West side and in Austintown can tell about the elaborate brochures from Heritage Academies sent to homes. Meanwhile those on Belmont and Glenwood, and I'm sure other thoroughfares, have surely seen the billboards from the same company. The corporation joins Colt 45, cigarettes, etc. in believing this is the best advertising in poorer areas.

Randy says "OEA and NEA as they have big money behind them." HA, HA, HA, HA, HA! gasp HA! HA! HA HA HA HA whew ... Yeah right. Mosaica, the chain that runs Youngstown Academy of Excellence has revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as does National Heritage Academies, the chain that runs Stambaugh Academy. David Brennan, the millionare who owns White Hat, the firm that runs Life Skills Centers and manages Eagle Heights Academy, is actually famous for owning legislators in Ohio. There are even bigger EMOs (Education Management Companies) like Edison in other states, waiting for their chance to get a foothold in Ohio. All of these organizations are well funded with grants from private "foundations" that seek to promote free market propaganda; and who believe that the building of wealth for their contributors is the most important value. Yeah these guys always like to paint the teachers as some great rich conspirators. Since I know the teachers, this always provides a guffaw for me.

Randy says the public schools are broken and that they don't do their jobs. But except for someone like him continually telling us something is wrong, most of us are satisfied with our own education, and the schools our children attend. I personally owe everything I have accomplished, and my livelihood to the traditional schools I attended. I have to admit that when there were areas I did not do well in, it was 100% because of my own ignorance, laziness, or lack of interest in the subject -- not the teachers' fault. Despite the "failure" of public schools, they have thousands, millions of successful graduates.

The only public schools that have any issues with achievement at all, as Randy indicates, are the ones in urban areas, where the needs of so many poor children in one school can be overwhelming. Public schools in these areas have worked to equalize the odds against children in these areas for a hundred years, with dedication and honor. (and they didn't even need the motivation of profit for a rich owner, who shares the treasure with his politician friends)

But Randy, I'm glad you came to the message boards. The reason there is little good news about charter schools here is that few people have said anything good about them. Is there, in your opinion, something bad about Dann's insistence on results and financial responsibility from the charter schools? Would you like to defend either on the part of Youngstown Academy of Excellence? One would think that the giant Mosaica could afford to provide them a bookkeeper. And tell me please, how is it more cost effective for Youngstown to have 30 different schools, often with duplication of administrators, etc. when they could have the 17 public schools only, like Poland and Canfield?