Calls for criminal investigation after ECOT whistleblower emerges
COLUMBUS, Ohio — There are calls for a criminal investigation into ECOT after a whistleblower employee of the former online charter school said software was used to intentionally inflate its enrollment numbers. The State of Ohio paid ECOT based on its enrollment.
ECOT has been locked into a fight with the State of Ohio over how to count it enrollment numbers. The Ohio Department of Education said ECOT overcharged the state so it wants $80 million back.
"At the beginning we thought it was just a record-keeping issue," said Sandy Theis with the Charter School Accountability Project. "ECOT is a chronically failing school. It has the worst four-year graduation rate in America and they can't document their attendance."
Theis spoke with a whistleblower employee at ECOT for a year who told her the school was using a software program to intentionally lift its enrollment numbers.
"That takes this from record-keeping problems in my opinion to criminal problems," she said.
ECOT closed during the middle of the 2017-18 school year after its sponsor pulled out. The debate over how the state handled ECOT has turned into a campaign issue with some people asking why more wasn't done to investigate.
"We should be interviewing witnesses," said Steve Dettlebach, a Democratic candidate for attorney general. "We should be grabbing texts, emails, documents, records, software, everything to try and find out if we can actually hold people accountable."
Dettelbach is running against Dave Yost, the current state auditor. Yost's office has been auditing ECOT.
“Steve Dettelbach does not have anything close to all of the facts in this case," Yost's office said in a statement. "This is nothing but a political stunt. There are no grounds for recusal. This office has aggressively audited ECOT’s claims for funding, and these allegations were thoroughly investigated as well. Most recently, this office demanded ECOT restate its financial statements when the school suspended its operations and had a receiver appointed. On April 13, the Auditor of State’s office gave ECOT a deadline of April 30 to provide those updated statements. We received that information this morning, and ECOT’s financial audit is scheduled for release May 1.”
An attorney for ECOT said the online charter school gave the state all of the data it requested to its satisfaction.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said he hasn't been referred any evidence of wrongdoing. He said he will wait to see Yost's audit May 1st to see if there's any evidence in there which warrants a criminal investigation.
