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ObserverArt5/17/2018 8:42:33 am PDT

Interesting. About a half hour ago I received a text message from the Ohio Democratic party about a hot FBI investigation into some nasty Ohio GOP contributions from the operators of the now defunct ECOT charter school.

ECOT closed back in January of this year and hung a whole bunch of students and parents out to lunch half way through a school year.

Corruption in the Ohio GOP has been real blatant under Ohio Johnny Kasich. State Rep Wes Goodman ( a Jim Jordan buddy and Family Values Conservative Christian) resigned quickly due to some sexual improprieties in his office.

That was just after Veteran Ohio Sen. Clifford Hite, a Republican from Findlay, resigned Oct. 16 after a sexual harassment complaint was filed against him.

In April of this year Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger resigned his office a when the FBI opened an investigation into his lavish spending on housing and travel during his time in office.

Just more dirty Republicans. Hopefully all of this will clean out our State House and put paid to the career of John Kasich.

Here is the latest scandal from the test message.

Medium - “Chartergate” Scandal Prompts FBI Investigation

“Chartergate” Scandal Prompts FBI Investigation
Ohio Republicans are rushing to give away tainted campaign cash. Here’s why.

The Chartergate scandal is roiling Columbus. Here’s what you need to know: Millions in tax dollars were wasted, Ohio kids were hurt and now there’s a criminal investigation into just how deep it goes. And all of this happened on the Ohio GOP’s watch.

Just hours before the Columbus Dispatch reported the FBI was looking into potentially illegal donations connected to Bill Lager (founder of the now-defunct “ECOT,” or Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow), Ohio Republicans on the 2018 ticket scrambled to offload hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash they took from donors linked to ECOT.

On the heels of the Cliff Rosenberger payday lending debacle, this is now the second Ohio Republican scandal that the FBI is investigating, and the Republican politicians who enabled this scam are now desperately trying to cover their tracks.

How did we get here?

The History of “Chartergate” — A Culture of Corruption

Nearly 20 years ago, a man named Bill Lager (now a multi-millionaire) founded ECOT. He worked up quite a scheme — a fully online school that would siphon $1 billion from our public schools based on one determining factor: how many kids he could enroll.

The catch? ECOT claimed they didn’t have to track how often their students were logged on, whether they were completing their lessons or whether they were learning anything (while still collecting fat checks from Ohio taxpayers).

Over the course of 15 years, ECOT took in more than $1 billion from Ohio taxpayers while showering Ohio Republican leaders with more than $2 million in political contributions.

Bottom line: it looks like they cooked the books — and wrote big campaign checks to the Ohio Republicans that were supposed to oversee them. Over the course of 15 years, ECOT took in more than $1 billion from Ohio taxpayers while showering Ohio Republican candidates and organizations with more than $2 million in political contributions.

Republican politicians like Dave Yost, Keith Faber and Frank LaRose accepted tons of political contributions from ECOT-linked donors, while failing to hold the corrupt e-charter accountable, instead treating the taxpayer-funded program like an ATM for the Ohio Republican Party.

The Ohio Democratic Party has long been concerned about Republican oversight (or lack thereof) of the for-profit charter school system in Ohio. We first called for an independent investigation into how Gov. John Kasich’s charter-school czar allegedly rigged evaluations for e-charters like ECOT all the way back in 2015.

It hasn’t gotten any better in the intervening years. ECOT finally had to close down earlier this year, after the state found the e-charter owed at least $80 million for students it claimed were enrolled, but couldn’t be verified. Now they’re auctioning off the school’s office building and its contents.

It keeps getting worse. Last month the Associated Press revealed a whistleblower’s allegations of data-rigging at ECOT. Then accusations emerged that the whistleblower was offered “hush money” to stay silent about what he saw while working at ECOT.

These revelations made the ECOT scandal — ”Chartergate” — potentially criminal. And it’s making headlines across Ohio.

- - Lots more at link - -