Ohio Supreme Court Narrowly Upholds State Charter Law

In a 4-3 ruling handed down last week, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s charter school law.

The law authorizing charter schools, called “community schools” in Ohio, was challenged by a coalition that was led by teachers’ unions and included school boards, parents, and others. With 305 charters serving some 72,000 students, Ohio has more of the independent but publicly funded schools than every state except Arizona, California, and Florida.

The plaintiffs sought a declaration that the state charter law and the method of financing charter schools violated the state constitution. But the court rejected those claims in Ohio Congress of Parents and Teachers v. State Board of Education , which...