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The Rose Colored Blinders Award

Buckeye Institute for NEPC Review: Public Charter Schools: A Great Value for Ohio’s Public Education System (November 2008)

This award is bestowed upon Public Charter Schools: A Great Value for Ohio’s Public Education System, authored by Matthew Carr and Beth Lear and published by Ohio’s Buckeye Institute. While many advocacy think tanks annually contend for this high honor, it was earned this year by the Buckeye Institute for its determined disregard of an extensive, non-partisan, and quite relevant state official report, its non-existent literature review, and its decisive failure to comprehend the state funding formula lying at the heart of its analysis. Our reviewer found that these bundled blunders lead the authors to the baseless conclusion that each charter student saves as much as $4,030 for the host public school district. He described the report as “unfounded and outlandish,” as well as “ridiculously false, deceitful, and patently misrepresent[ing] how the funding of public schools works.”