Stephen Dyer · May 14, 2018

ECOT Central Debuts at Innovation Ohio

Ever since it became clear that the taxpayer rip off that was the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow would become a major issue for those who allowed the former virtual school giant to continue collecting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars while barely graduating 40 percent of its students, with only 109 of their 3,794 graduates from 2010 earning college degrees within six years, I have been asked for all kinds of information about ECOT, its influence, its performance and its history. Well, this is the beginning of that story’s telling, which recently culminated in a whistleblower alleging outright criminal activity, which has attracted interest from law enforcement officials. Here at Innovation Ohio, we have been diligently collecting and analyzing information, data and history about this virtual school that became very much the poster child for Ohio’s nationally ridiculed charter school sector. This information, we hope, will be useful to observers, analysts, reporters, parents and students so they can understand what political power can do and how it can corrupt even the purest of intentions.