The following item was sent to me from Betsy Pryor (OCTE). The charter or coummunity school movement is another by-product of the Ohio State Legislature and Governor's office. Data on charter school performance is very limited, but recent news articles claim their performance to be far below that of the city school districts in which they operate.
      The charter school movement is another example of right-wing extremist efforts to subvert our system of public schooling. Indeed, there is no question that the movement is fueled by the hysteria resulting from OPT and OSRC indictments of the urban districts. The charter school movement further disenfranchises the disadvantaged children in Ohio's citys. While I do not generally oppose the charter schools themselves (with a few notable exceptions), I do strongly oppose the legislation that allows them to further deplete the resources of our city school districts and mislead parents of city children into beliving these schools will provide a superior education to that of the city district. I believe that, if left unchecked, these charter schools will be the State's replacement for city districts who cannot and will not meet the OSRC standards of performance under current State law. (rlh)

Charter Schools on the Rise

      According to Thomas Baker, executive director of The Ohio Community School Center, located in Columbus, charter schools (sometimes referred to as community schools) in Ohio have grown more than 300 percent while the charter school population has grown 400 percent, to 10,000 students. The opening last year of 15 charter schools with 2400 student attracted little attention, according to the Center, but the opening of 49 schools this year marked the permanence of charter schools in Ohio's system of public education.

The following is a breakdown of the charter schools and their populations as of 11-1999.

City	School	Enrollment
Akron	6	900
Cincinnati	6	1800
Cleveland	10	2250
Columbus	5	1200
Dayton	7	1600
Toledo	12	1250
Youngstown	3	1000