Teachers' union challenges tax status of charter operator White...

Interesting......

Maybe Brennan has too many irons in the fire with this one. Not sure why he jumped into the whole charter school thing anyway. Lord know he makes enough owning downtown.

BTW, for those of you that do not know, the state money for charter schools comes right out of the Public School coffers. Close 'em down and improve our schools!

Somehow, I don't think that the teacher's union is as concerned about a tax status as they are about employed dues payers.

Bergermeister wrote:

Interesting......
Maybe Brennan has too many irons in the fire with this one. Not sure why he jumped into the whole charter school thing anyway. Lord know he makes enough owning downtown.
BTW, for those of you that do not know, the state money for charter schools comes right out of the Public School coffers. Close 'em down and improve our schools!

AMEN. Maybe then we wouldn't have to conitually pass levys.

This man has cheated and swindled Akronites and Ohioans in general out of their hard earned money. Let him sweat an IRS Audit or three.

Yes Sir, shut them down and put tax dollars where they belong.

Congress expelled Speaker of The House Gingerich for scamming Fathers disqualified for affirmative action with white skin, Union workers, consumers, taxpayers, and America’s grandchildren’s children to pay for donors tax refund for teaching under a glorified, socialist/communist, nonprofit, tax exempt, tax shelter.
This support for the demise of Natural Law, God, democracy, capitalism, the US Constitution, and free, fair, and affordable commerce. Makes funding schools IMPOSSIBLE; Makes free, fair, and affordable commerce IMPOSSIBLE. Makes balancing every budget IMPOSSIBLE. Makes union workers, consumers, taxpayers, and America’s grandchildren’s children LIFE UNAFFORDABLE. And created the $40 trillion social security and the $8.6 trillion national debt. America’s grandchildren’s children are responsible to pay interest with until they are 18 years old.
Then pay the debt with the $6.85 per hour labor wage. Twenty five percent of We the stupid, defiant of demands of natural law (what Mother Nature, God, or Whatever Power decreed to be the reality of the real world) God, democracy, capitalism, the US Constitution, and free, fair, and affordable commerce. Deceived in Sunday schools, public schools, private schools, and home schools, colleges, and universities government of the people, by the people, for the people, elected legislators and representatives to enact.
There is no reason to believe America’s grandchildren’s children that go to bed hungry can afford life and pay this debt with money derived from wages or independent business profit in a hundred million years.
http://www.loreneberly.com

Can the Brennan's buy the IRS the way they bought the Ohio General Assembly? If so, they've got nothing to worry about.

Good go for it,, these charter schools have not imporovved student scores(many past news reports on this one), and do not have to obey many of the state mandates that our local schools do.. which equates to them make more profit from the funds they get form us tax payers without any say

While I disagree with the for profit side of this company, I applaud their continuation of trying to reach students in alternative methods. Our schools are not failing only because of funding issues, but in many other ways as well. We have thousands of great teachers in our schools, so why are our children doing so poorly? It is for a number of reasons. One reason I would venture to say is that a majority of parents don't teach their children at home. Not just the core subjects but citizenship, morals and just daily life. Our teachers are required to teach our children everything. If they could focus on the core subjects and children would not have behavior issues, then maybe our teachers could really teach what they are meant to be teaching. Our teachers are grossly underpaid for what they have become... parents, pastors, and police all in one. The next reason is many children don't learn they way that they are taught. Many children need to be taught in other ways, we have visual learners, hands on learners, etc. A teacher can only teach one way. How about some parents volunteering to help with a group who needs some extra help in a different way. Not happening because if they aren't going to teach at home, why would they teach in a school. I also disagree with the whole achievement testing. In the midst of my daughters education, she needs to take a test every late winter on a whole year of learning. This test covers everything learned in the specific grade from Sept to June. The only thing is they take it in March, that leaves 25% of the years worth of work that they haven't learned but are tested on!... Well now her school is giving her OGT practice sheets each week in order to prep her for the test. So for the week she is working on order of operations and then BAM she is thrown in an extra piece of homework on geometry that she has to figure out how to do so that she can do well on the test. How about confusing them more? Our system is set up to be all about the test score. If my child can memorize a bunch of facts about the founding of our nation but she will forget by the time she is 20, but can remember them for the test at the end of the week, she is considered smart. It doesn't matter if she understands the concept of why we actually came here, of what our country was built on. We live in an instant gratification society and even our extra curricular activities show it. Video games, movies, etc instead of books and actual hobbies that take time to develop the skills. We have taken learning out of so much that we have forgot how to learn. We don't need more funding for our schools, we need new frontiers. That is what White Hat is offering, so while I don't like that the money signs might be driving the company I do love that they are taking kids that can't make it in a normal school setting and giving them new opportunities to learn. Akron schools have a digital academy, maybe our school systems should look more into it. There is a need for alternative schools, education is not one size fits all.

hudson husband wrote:

these charter schools have not imporovved student scores(many past news reports on this one), and do not have to obey many of the state mandates that our local schools do..

You are mistaken about this, charter schools are held to the same mandates of the state, that is why the union is challenging them. The scores are hard to determine. If you have 15 kids with an average score of 90% and 5 kids with an average score of 60% that gives school A an 83% average. If you take three of those kids with a 60% score and switch them to their own school, school B, School B will have a 60% average while school A will now have an 87% average. So while it seems that school B has a horrible average comparatively speaking to School A, It is an unfair comparison. Now if school B improves to 65%, people are still going to complain even though they have brought up the average. It's comparing apples to oranges. Most people don't think about this when they see the numbers. Many statistics are biased without even meaning to be.

I agree with the previous poster, there is definately a need for alternative education because our public school system is not cutting it. I'm not sure about their tax status...but they are serving a good purpose, but at the end of the day they are in it to make money...but they are graded just like the school system, and if they do not graduate students/improve students grades they lose funding

The reality is that we all own the education problem. We allow the teacher's union and others to message their opinions to us without considering their motiviations and challenging their findings. This is no different than when Michigan's legislators and residents listened to the UAW to not allow non-union car companies like Subaru, Toyota, and Honda to come to their state. Now, Michigan's economy is crippled and the UAW is trying to distance themselves from their involvement. My prediction is the teacher's union will do the same thing in the next few years when our schools weaken further.

Why would the Teachers Union care about Brennan's Charter Schools? Some would argue the Teachers Union does not want pay-for-outcomes funding in Ohio. Could you imagine what would happen if K-12 student funding followed the child and that each child was given the opportunity to choose where the received their education. Wait, this model already exists in our state higher education system and it's regarded as one of the best systems in the country.... Fuel for thought!

Get rid of the charter schools!

Good. David Brennan is a scum bag.

Face the Facts wrote:

The reality is that we all own the education problem. We allow the teacher's union and others to message their opinions to us without considering their motiviations and challenging their findings. This is no different than when Michigan's legislators and residents listened to the UAW to not allow non-union car companies like Subaru, Toyota, and Honda to come to their state. Now, Michigan's economy is crippled and the UAW is trying to distance themselves from their involvement. My prediction is the teacher's union will do the same thing in the next few years when our schools weaken further.
Why would the Teachers Union care about Brennan's Charter Schools? Some would argue the Teachers Union does not want pay-for-outcomes funding in Ohio. Could you imagine what would happen if K-12 student funding followed the child and that each child was given the opportunity to choose where the received their education. Wait, this model already exists in our state higher education system and it's regarded as one of the best systems in the country.... Fuel for thought!

The school funding DOES currently follow the student. That's open enrollment. If a student from school A decides to go with school B then school B gets the funding for that child's education and it is pulled from school A.

I would like to help clear up the innacuracies in the above statements.
1. No, the money does not follow the student. Read the Keip study to understand. Only the state dollars follow them the local schools keep all of the tax dollars. My child is in a private school, I pay for his tuition plus my tax dollars contribute to another child's education in the public system. This is the same when a child leaves for a charter school. A charter school receives approx. 5500 per pupil while I believe APS is around 9000.
2. Brennan owns a Summa building - I find this statement to be disgusting. The fact that he believes in supporting his hometown and giving back because he can afford to his humbling and should teach us all a lesson. If not for him there would not be critical care units, school choice and Akron buildings would be crumbling. Who else would buy them...face it Akron is going down hill.
3. Teachers unions contribute just as much money to the democratic party as Brennan contributes to the republican. I believe in cancer research and I contribute to that isn't it normal to contribute to what you believe in. Don't kid yourself that Strickland is unbiased, he is focused on education because of who supports him and his personal grudges. It is not what is best for our children.
4. Educational choice - we all learn differently...some are visual, auditory, etc. and we all know this about ourselves. Why try to force a square peg into a round hole? In order to help children succeed at school we need to meet their needs not vice versa. We are not the same and expect choices in everything we do as a matter of fact many have fought against monopolies as it a right for us to have choice. Why should our educational systems be allowed to illegally have a monopoly system.
Food for thought....

Teachers motive is to be paid wages enabling them to pay for everything they need for life with money derived from their wages.
For teaching every student to read, write, think for themselves, count change when the power goes off, and understand the importance of complying with demands Of natural law (what Mother Nature, God, or Whatever Power decreed to be the reality of the real world), God, democracy, capitalism, the US Constitution, and free, fair, and affordable commerce.
Demanding every corporation, farmer, business, outsourcer sweatshop, and nonprofit, tax-exempt, organization markets the cost in the wholesale and retail price of his or her product and service. Of every workers, consumers, and taxpayers living (including pension and health care). Enabling parents to love, nurse, nurture, discipline, protect, and provide, for every child (job) they conceive and fund schools, infrastructure, national security, government services, and etc.; with money derived from wages or independent business profit.
http://www.loreneberly.com

Most Charter schools will fail, just a fad right now APS should be ashamed for the poor job they have done over the years

Education a choice wrote:

I would like to help clear up the innacuracies in the above statements.
1. No, the money does not follow the student. Read the Keip study to understand. Only the state dollars follow them the local schools keep all of the tax dollars. My child is in a private school, I pay for his tuition plus my tax dollars contribute to another child's education in the public system. This is the same when a child leaves for a charter school. A charter school receives approx. 5500 per pupil while I believe APS is around 9000.
2. Brennan owns a Summa building - I find this statement to be disgusting. The fact that he believes in supporting his hometown and giving back because he can afford to his humbling and should teach us all a lesson. If not for him there would not be critical care units, school choice and Akron buildings would be crumbling. Who else would buy them...face it Akron is going down hill.
3. Teachers unions contribute just as much money to the democratic party as Brennan contributes to the republican. I believe in cancer research and I contribute to that isn't it normal to contribute to what you believe in. Don't kid yourself that Strickland is unbiased, he is focused on education because of who supports him and his personal grudges. It is not what is best for our children.
4. Educational choice - we all learn differently...some are visual, auditory, etc. and we all know this about ourselves. Why try to force a square peg into a round hole? In order to help children succeed at school we need to meet their needs not vice versa. We are not the same and expect choices in everything we do as a matter of fact many have fought against monopolies as it a right for us to have choice. Why should our educational systems be allowed to illegally have a monopoly system.
Food for thought....

Agreed...thanks for interjecting. White Hat, like so many organizations, is internally (if not externally) engaged in the battle between good and evil, but having personally spoken with Mr. Brennan and read his book, I believe his founding motives were honorable and charitable regardless of White Hat's tax status or Mr. Brennan's level of income.