Sherrod Brown wants feds to go after Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow (ECOT)

Sen. Sherrod Brown wants U.S. Department of Education Inspector General Kathleen Tighe to probe the ECOT scandal as well as Ohio’s entire for-profit charter school industry.

The Democratic senator’s letter stems from state Auditor Dave Yost’s audit released last week that referred possible fraud by the now-closed online school to both state and federal authorities, including Tighe. The audit found that ECOT got more than $130 million in federal funds since 2000.

“Ohioans deserve answers,” wrote Brown. “We trust schools to educate and prepare students, but ECOT, (founder) William Lager, and his companies have abused that trust to rig the system to enrich themselves.”

Brown noted that ECOT was managed by Altair Learning Management and had a major contract with IQ Innovations, both for-profit entities owned by Lager.

Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180515/sherrod-brown-wants-feds-to-go-after-ecot