By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - More than half of Ohio charter schools already have federal nonprofit status, so there's no reason all of them shouldn't, the Senate Education Chairman said Friday as a dispute continued over a bill overhauling the state's charter school law.

The bill would provide more financial accountability for charter schools while expanding the groups that can sponsor the publicly funded, privately run schools. The House version passed in March.

The Senate version requires all charter schools to seek federal nonprofit status and requires that teachers at online schools meet with students once every eight weeks.

It also reduces state funding for online schools the more children a family enrolls in the school.

Rep. Jon Husted, sponsor and architect of the House version, is refusing to support the Senate bill, in part because of the nonprofit requirement.

Under the bill, "We put the future existence of charter schools in the hands of the IRS," Mr. Husted said Friday. "We shouldn't be ceding whether a school is successful or not to the Internal Revenue Service."

Senate Education Chairman Robert Gardner said more than 60 of the 102 charter schools sponsored by the Department of Education already have the federal nonprofit status and another 18 are seeking it.

"I can't understand why they're making a big deal out of it," said Mr. Gardner, a Madison Republican.

"The true sense of a community school is to work with local organizations and local businesses," he said. If a charter school has nonprofit status, "corporations can donate money and write it off."

Millennium Community School in Columbus has nonprofit status, but founder Jim Cowardin doesn't think it should be a requirement for all charter schools.

"It's expensive, you've got to have lawyers do it, and it's just unnecessary," Mr. Cowardin said. "The point is to make sure schools never pay federal taxes, but no school has ever paid federal taxes."

Millennium has 670 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Mike Carder, executive director of Marion-based TRECA Digital Academy, supports the Senate requirement that teachers at online schools have regular contact with students.

Schools, teachers and students "benefit by having the personal touch by the teacher ever so often," Mr. Carder said Friday. "I don't think digital online education ever takes the place of that."

TRECA has about 670 students statewide, according to preliminary state enrollment figures.

Mr. Husted said the House won't support the changes in the Senate version because it adds too many layers of bureaucracy that have nothing to do with teaching.

But Mr. Gardner, a teacher for 28 years, said he believes his rewritten bill has the support of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. He intends to send it to the Senate for a full vote later this year.