ECOT Decision Only Worsens Ohio's Reputation for Regulatory Excess

Even before the recent Ohio Supreme Court’s 4-2 decision, which enshrined retroactive agency rule making into Ohio law; the Buckeye state was already suffering from what most experts would consider as regulatory excess.  

For example:

Brandon S. Ogden, MBA, Founder of Small Business Consultants of Ohio, said that the ECOT decision “certainly worsens Ohio’s reputation as one of the most highly regulated states in the nation with its sizeable regulatory code.”  Ogden points to a recent study from George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, which highlights the fact that the Ohio Administrative Code “contains 246,852 restrictions, 15.2 million words, and compares only to the Federal Registry in length.”

According to the Cato Institute, Ohio ranks a meager 31 out of 50 on regulatory freedom issues.  A link to the Cato Institute study can be found here.

Odgen said that “once retroactive rules are permitted under law, almost anything can happen.”  Odgen continued and stated that “small businesses are especially vulnerable to retroactive rule making because it takes away their ability to comment and press for change and they typically lack the financial resources to fight back, like ECOT was able to do.”

Read the rest of the article here.

ECOT Case Will Decide Fate of All Ohio Charter Schools

In 2001 a group of public school employee unions brought litigation against the State of Ohio, various charter schools including ECOT, and their management companies.

Their contention?

That the state’s charter school legislation which permitted privately operated schools to receive public money was unconstitutional.

The 2005 oral arguments are strikingly similar to the issues now being debated.  Those archived oral arguments can be viewed here.

Fortunately, the Ohio Supreme Court, by a narrow 4-3 majority, upheld the constitutionality of this system.

Unfortunately, those that want to shut down every charter school in Ohio haven’t given up.  They are now trying to overturn this seminal 2006 decision through a series of backdoor legal actions tied to the current ECOT litigation.

Let me explain:

In 2016 during the midst of the presidential primaries, a group of school choice opponents within the Ohio Department of Education, along with the Governor’s office, discovered a way to go after online charter schools.   As a result of their actions, the largest online school, ECOT, was closed. 3rd Rail Politics has extensively covered this issue.

Additionally, six other smaller online schools have closed while three are struggling on repayment plans.

Those efforts were just the beginning.

Now, unless the Ohio Supreme Court overturns the lower courts and find those efforts unlawful, the path will be clear for bureaucrats and ambitious politicians to eliminate all of Ohio’s charter schools.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE