Ohio Lawsuits Revive Long-Standing Clash Over States’ Charters

Ohio’s new attorney general is turning to the court system to shut down charter schools he argues have shown consistently poor academic results, using what appears to be a novel legal strategy that some analysts suggest could be attempted in other states.

In a state where charters have long faced organized resistance, Marc Dann, a Democrat, in September filed separate lawsuits targeting three charter schools in the Dayton area. The cases hinge not on the state’s charter school law, first passed in 1997, but rather on what Mr. Dann says is the schools’ status as charitable or public trusts under state law.

In the three complaints, filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County, the attorney general contends that the schools’ “persistent failure to even come close to meeting” state standards shows that...