As the General Assembly returns to the Statehouse after a leisurely summer break, state lawmakers face the traditional challenge of whether they should bother to do their jobs. What lawmakers choose to do, or not to do, to reform Ohio’s corrupt system of charter school regulation will provide an early test of their intentions.

The state’s ludicrously lax oversight of the nearly 400 charter schools, many of them run by for-profit private companies, that compete with Ohio’s traditional public schools for students and tax dollars is a nationally known disgrace. Some charter schools, also called community schools, are among the best in the state. But too many others waste huge sums of money, provide inferior education, and disdain public accountability.

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Even as the state now provides nearly $1 billion a year in aid to charter schools, it demands far too small a return on that investment. This situation persists largely because several of the largest, and most notorious, charter school operators in Ohio are among major campaign contributors to state politicians, mostly Republicans. A case in point is White Hat Management, the defendant in a lawsuit that resulted in an awful decision this month by the Ohio Supreme Court.

White Hat, based in Akron, was sued by the governing boards of 10 charter schools, now closed, that sought to end their management contracts with the company. White Hat insisted that it owned the schools’ textbooks, computers, equipment, and other assets bought with public money, and that the schools would have to pay the company to buy back those supplies.

Selling the same horse twice is a profitable practice, if you can get away with it. The Supreme Court’s 5-2 majority took White Hat’s side; some justices did so in near-apologetic terms, claiming that loopholes in state law governing charter schools had left them no choice.

Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger of Toledo, a Republican, noted in her majority opinion that state lawmakers had “enacted statutes that take a laissez-faire attitude toward operators of community schools.” It is up to lawmakers, she said, “to determine whether public policy requires stiffening of the regulatory scheme.”

After years of neglect, the Republican-majority state Senate unanimously approved a measure this year that would impose needed new mandates on charter schools. The bill would prohibit conflicts of interest among charter school operators, sponsors, and vendors. It would require the schools to disclose more information about their finances, operations, and student attendance and performance — standards of transparency that traditional public schools already are required to meet.

The bill is not as tough as it could or should be, but it represents an essential start on reform. Yet the GOP-controlled state House left for the summer without acting on the measure, giving charter operators time to lobby House members to gut or kill it.

No further delay is justified; the House needs to pass the bill now. And if Gov. John Kasich can break away long enough from his presidential campaign to do his day job, his active support for the measure could make the difference.

At the same time, the Ohio Department of Education has acknowledged that a former executive rigged state evaluations of failing online charter schools to make them look better, allowing their sponsors and operators to continue to pocket state money. State officials insisted he acted alone, although email messages released by the department appear to show that some colleagues knew what he was up to. An independent investigation of the evidently illegal data scrubbing remains warranted.

Overall, Ohio’s charter schools perform no better, and often worse, than traditional public schools. But that observation masks huge differences in quality among charter schools, which enroll more than 120,000 students across the state.

Good charter schools offer choices to students and parents, and opportunities for educational innovations that can save taxpayers money and improve all schools. Bad charter schools, by diverting resources from hard-pressed traditional schools, make Ohio’s overall educational system worse.

Do state lawmakers and Governor Kasich appreciate that distinction? Do they care? The answer to these questions, so far, seems to be “no.” That needs to change, now.

First Published September 27, 2015, 4:00 a.m.