"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Dann Sues Charter School As "Abject Academic Failure"

From the Columbus Dispatch:
Attorney General Marc Dann today filed suit against Harmony Community School in Cincinnati, citing the charter school for "abject academic failure, gross financial mismanagement, ethical lapses, and what amounts to consumer fraud."
It was the fourth suit Dann has filed against a charter school.

Dann, who traveled to Cincinnati personally to file the case in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, charged that the school failed to properly educate students using $31.9 million in state money it received since 1998. He asked the court to close the school “to free the students who are trapped in this failed institution.”

“During my time in office I have rarely encountered a more egregious abuse of the public trust or the public treasury than is documented in these pages,” Dann said of the allegations contained in 600-page supporting document he filed.

To critics who say the Ohio Department of Education and not the attorney general should be taking action against charters, Dann said, "...if Harmony was another type of charitable trust, if it were a non-profit hospital that routinely injured or killed patients or a charity that misused donations, the same people who are criticizing me for holding community schools accountable would be clamoring for me to act immediately and decisively."

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