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OFT PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT TELL THE WHOLE STORY

AKRON, Ohio – May 11, 2005 – It should come as no surprise to anyone that during this period of time when our state senators are busily discussing our state’s budget and making critical decisions about our state’s future for the next two years, that the teacher’s union bosses and one politician that supports them saw an opportunity to bully our decision makers and attempt to dramatically curtail parental choice by issuing a one-sided, scathing press release about White Hat Management and the schools it manages.

Curiously, what the Press Release did not say is:

  1. The union bosses who represent traditional public schools and their supporters have tried just about everything to convince the general public that White Hat managed schools, and charter schools in general, are bad and without any success. These groups have filed several lawsuits, both state and federal, designated several hundred of thousands of dollars to negative PR campaigns and actively attempted to bully state lawmakers and the general public against the school choice movement. Unfortunately for the OFT and their supporters, all previous efforts have failed miserably and parents continue to come to charter schools in record numbers, stating by their choices, that it is the existing traditional public schools that are failing and that the general public desperately need options and assistance. This press release is simply OFT’s one last desperate attempt to force state lawmakers to take choices away from parents and students by causing our elected officials to have a reaction to a well timed, misleading press release.
     
  2. While these union press releases are often inciteful (not insightful), when given the time to properly evaluate the claims made in the reports, more times than not we find that the data and statistics the union bosses use as comparisons, and what they claim is “apples to apples”, is not really that at all. On more than one occasion, we have found that for the sake of comparison, the makers of these reports routinely skip by schools that are a few streets away from ours and instead rely on data from “county schools” that are not in the vicinity of our educational offerings.
     
  3. These union led reports always rely on statewide proficiency data. What the reports do not acknowledge is that proficiency tests results are a mere snapshot of educational achievement and that charter school performance on these tests can be equally attributed to the failures of the students’ last school, mostly traditional public schools. What the reports do not say is the significant amount of remediation, usually several grade levels, that charter schools must engage in before grade level education can even take place. What the reports do not show is actual student progress and credit achievement made by charter school students. When will traditional public schools and their union bosses start to take responsibility for their role in the educational epidemic which charter schools are currently addressing?
     
  4. Further confounding the problems with the Union’s “apples to apples” analysis is that as a part of their mission, charter schools gladly take the students who are being failed by traditional public schools, and who are academically behind, thereby artificially deflating charter school proficiency scores and artificially inflating traditional public schools results.
     
  5. Last year, several HOPE Academies and Life Skills Centers, especially those in the Akron/Canton areas, all met AYP which is evidence that our state lawmakers commitment to charter schools can work and given enough time can show positive educational results.
     
  6. As a result of those HOPE Academy and Life Skill Center AYP successes, that White Hat has identified best practices that it has rolled out to its other schools which should begin to positively impact those schools data and test results as well.
     
  7. That every HOPE Academy and Life Skills Center that came up for renewal of its community school contract was recommended for renewal by the State Department of Education and was renewed by a majority of the State Board of Education. These recommendations and renewals took place after an exhaustive and comprehensive educational and fiscal evaluation which in most cases was as comprehensive, if not more than, those traditional public schools undergo. As such, our HOPE Academies and Life Skills Centers have demonstrated that we are making a difference in the lives of students and families and that we are worth the investment.
     
  8. Regardless of all the negative publicity that the union bosses attempt to perpetuate, that our parent and student satisfaction rates are in the mid-high ninety percent range and that satisfaction rate is from parents who were so disgusted with traditional public schools and their union bosses, they had already made the decision to move their child once and would not think twice about doing so again. However, these satisfaction rates indicate that rather than choose to move their students again, these students and families are finally satisfied with the education that their children are receiving and want to stay put.
     
  9. Our Life Skills Centers have graduated over 5,200 previous high school drop-outs who were forced out of or not served by traditional public schools and their union bosses. These students were previously on a certain path towards failure but have left our programs meeting every state academic credit, having passed every state proficiency test and with employment. Fortunately for these students, they will not be mere statistics about drug use, crime, poverty, overburdening our social service programs and prisons, like is the case for a great majority of students that have dropped out of school and who have no other options.
     
  10. Life Skills Centers have been endorsed by the National Conference of Black Mayors, the Denver Fox Television Affiliate and an Editor of the Detroit Free Press as a possible solution to the drop out problem that plagues our state and country.
     
  11. Former Secretary of Education Rod Paige toured our Life Skills Center during his term as Secretary and opined that our educational model is the “future of education”.
     
  12. How proud Ohio lawmakers should be based upon a Center For Education Reform report that shows that Ohio lawmaker’s and White Hat’s commitment to solving the high school drop-out epidemic has resulted in White Hat managed schools serving one-half of this nation’s drop-outs currently being reengaged in education by charter schools.

As such, it should be obvious to see that the condition of White Hat Managed schools, and charter schools in general, is not as the union’s bullying public relations techniques would indicate and that charter schools can be and are successful.

What we want to know is when will the OFT will stop utilizing hard earned dues of teachers who are dedicated to the education of children for lawsuits, negative PR campaigns and bullying lobbying techniques and start trying to develop innovative, creative and new educational offerings that will start to convince parents and students that traditional public schools are right for them? While the answer to that question is uncertain, what is certain is that White Hat stands behind all of its administrators, teachers and staff who are deeply committed to the success of each and every student that enter our door and needs help.

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The HOPE Academies and Riverside Academy are community schools established under Chapter 3314 of the Revised Code. These schools are public schools and students enrolled in and attending the schools are required to take proficiency tests and other examinations prescribed by law. In addition, there may be other requirements for students at the schools that are prescribed by law. Students who have been excused from the compulsory attendance law for the purpose of home education as defined by the Administrative Code shall no longer be excused for that purpose upon their enrollment in a community school. For more information about this matter contact the school administration or the Ohio Department of Education.