As lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich discuss how to overhaul Ohio charter school laws, some new players have entered the debate. Well, sort of new.

Troy Judy and Chad Hawley, who each served in top staff leadership positions, including chief of staff, for former House Speaker William G. Batchleder, have formed a lobbying firm, The Batchelder Company.

Among the first clients for the new firm are those affiliated with the state’s largest charter school, the online Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, better known as ECOT. School founder, William Lager, is among the largest individual contributors to legislative Republicans.

With an enrollment of more than 14,500, ECOT is now the state’s 10 th largest school district, benefitting from an eight-year moratorium on new online charter schools. Of the $113 million it received in state tax revenue, $21.4 million went to two companies that Lager formed to provide services to the school.

Judy and Hawley, along with Batchelder, who was term limited at the end of 2014 and is serving as an adviser to the firm, have been hired to represent those companies – Altair Learning Management, which runs ECOT’s day-to-day operations, and IQ Innovations, Lager's software firm.

(Read more at the Dispatch)