Ohio's largest online charter school is making drastic cuts to help pay a $60 million-dollar debt to the state. Here's the latest in the battle between the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow and the Ohio Department of Education.
ECOT spokesman Neil Clark says the cuts are needed to pay back 60% of the $100 million the school got from the state last year.
“They have proposed laying off up to 350 people in the next 30 to 60 days.”
Teachers, administrators, and staff positions will be eliminated. And Clark says if the state doesn’t allow the school enough time to pay back the money, ECOT will have to close its doors for good. The state has said ECOT was paid for 9,000 more full-time students than were actually enrolled.