COLUMBUS — A group of school and teachers’ union officials Thursday chastised lawmakers for leaving the Statehouse for the summer without passing charter school reforms that were close to the finish line.

They also urged changes in how such schools are funded, a conversation that is far from any finish line.

“They passed the Youngstown [school takeover] plan in a day,” said Steve Dyer, a former Democratic state representative from the Akron area who is now with the liberal think tank Innovation Ohio. “Certainly they would be able to deal with the issues on charter schools that have been talked about for almost three decades now.”

Ohio has faced national criticism for its charter school system, which has allowed some failing schools to continue  by jumping sponsors and allowing sponsors to financially profit from selling services and renting buildings to their own schools.

Republican leaders of the General Assembly vowed to enact reforms of the charter schools, which are public schools that are freed from some of the regulation of more traditional schools. The House passed a bill early this year, but when the measure returned in late June from the Senate with tougher provisions, it stalled. The House recessed without a vote and won’t return until Sept. 30.

In reaction to the news conference, Darlene Chambers, CEO and president of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said her organization also supports a “positive outcome” when legislators return to Columbus.

“The many months of work, review, committee hearings, and study by legislators, their staffs, and the charter school community is an example of the cooperation this bill has inspired across the state,” she said. “Statements from the House and Senate leadership indicate there is a serious commitment to reach consensus and pass charter reform legislation this fall.”

The debate comes against the backdrop of recent revelations that the scores of some poor-performing charter schools had been deleted from performance evaluations of a handful of sponsors by the Department of Education.

The state’s school choice chief, David Hansen, resigned after admitting he pulled the scores because he feared they would overshadow other charter school success stories. Mr. Hansen is the husband of Gov. John Kasich’s former chief of staff, Beth Hansen, now his presidential campaign manager.

Those performance evaluations have since been retracted. A number of lawmakers and some State Board of Education members have lashed out at the state’s education superintendent, Richard Ross, over the controversy.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published August 28, 2015, 4:00 a.m.