Charters chief kept quiet about bad studies

Catherine Candisky, via a kind reader:

While getting grilled in July about leaving online schools out of charter-school sponsor evaluations, David Hansen, the former Ohio Department of Education’s school-choice head, did not share a report critical of the online schools.

Three days later, Hansen resigned.

And in December, he directed staff to not talk publicly about another study showing Ohio students fared much worse at charter schools.

“No comment about it outside the department,” Hansen wrote in an email to staff members days before the report was released.

On Friday, several members of the Ohio Board of Education said they had never heard about the most recent report, commissioned by Hansen’s office, until told about it by The Dispatch.