Republicans in the Ohio legislature gave their charter school patrons a big Christmas bonus this year: The right to buy public schools at wholesale prices.
In their rush to put an exclamation point on the Final Days of Tyranny, Republicans slipped the gag gift into a bill designed to reign in teacher misconduct. The law requires public school districts to sell a building if it hasn’t been used in a year and there aren’t plans on the books to use it in the next three years.
The buildings — bought and paid for with taxpayer money — are required to be sold at market value. In Cleveland’s blighted inner city neighborhoods, we’re talking firesale prices.
“It’s a private takeover of a public entity,” says Senate Democratic Leader-Elect Teresa Fedor. “This is the true motive of the Republican Party. Their motive was to dismantle public education as quickly as possible, hand it over to private operators.” — Kevin Hoffman
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2006.