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Lieutenant Governor Candidate Betty Sutton Stumps in St. Clairsville

Betty Sutton, the Democrat candidate for lieutenant governor, campaigned in St. Clairsville on Wednesday, focusing on the now-closed Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow to draw distinctions between the Democrat and Republican nominees for governor.

ECOT, which provided online courses for students, closed in the wake of allegations that it inflated enrollment numbers and improperly collected state subsidies as a result. ECOT could not prove how many students were logging in to participate in its online classes or how much time they were spending on those studies. That led the state to suspend payments to ECOT and to take steps to collect about $80 million it had paid improperly to ECOT.

About 12,000 students and hundreds of teachers were affected when ECOT shut down its online classes. ECOT officials then took the state to court, insisting they should not have to repay the money.

Sutton criticized Wednesday the Republican attitude toward charter schools in general and said Attorney General Mike DeWine, the GOP nominee for governor, bears responsibility for allowing ECOT to continue these alleged activities during his tenure as the state’s top law enforcement officer.

“I’m here to fight for Ohio’s kids, to fight for Ohio’s taxpayers,” Sutton said. “Mike DeWine and (Ohio Secretary of State and DeWine’s running mate) Jon Husted sat back for years as ECOT preyed on schoolchildren and stole millions of dollars from the state, including tens of thousands of dollars from the St. Clairsville-Richland City Schools.”

Sutton also said Husted played a key role in eliminating the Ohio Legislative Office of Education Oversight, which was the only independent watchdog monitoring Ohio’s charter schools.

“(Dewine) has willfully looked the other way as a billion of our taxpayer dollars went to a politically-connected for-profit charter school that was ripping off our kids and our taxpayers…In exchange for enabling their scam, Mike DeWine and Husted raked in $40,000 in campaign contributions.”

Joshua Eck, a spokesman for the DeWine and Husted campaign, said Wednesday night that the attorney general had received a campaign contribution from Bill Lager for just over $12,000 in 2015. He said the current campaign gave the money to the Boys and Girls Club.

Furthermore, he said, DeWine’s office has held ECOT accountable.

“Mike DeWine is the only elected official who has made real progress in this case,” Eck said.

Meanwhile, Sutton said her running mate, Richard Cordray, worked to protect taxpayers during his time as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She also said that she has fought on the side of public schools throughout her political career.

“Ohio deserves a governor and a lieutenant governor who will crack down on this predatory for-profit charter school … and fight for our public schools and our kids,” Sutton said.

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