Charter school applications assisted by Oklahoma City's Ben Harris

Ben Harris, an Oklahoma City man who is working on a dozen charter school applications in other states, is behind a proposed virtual charter school in Oklahoma that sued the state Education Department.

Harris is listed as a registered agent for Community Strategies Inc., the nonprofit that is opening Epic 1 on 1 Charter School. He uses his home address on the corporate papers, and he worked behind the scenes to get the school approved by the University of Central Oklahoma.

Harris, 35, is an expert on virtual charter schools. He worked on the applications of a dozen schools in Florida, California and Arizona for Bricktown-based company Advanced Academics Inc.

Yet, Harris said all of the work he has done in Oklahoma is strictly on a volunteer basis to assist his childhood friend David Chaney, who is the founder of Epic 1 on 1 Charter School.

"I'm proud of the work I've done in Oklahoma and around the country to advance charter schools and parental choice," Harris said. "I believe that what I'm doing is a service to public education, and I'm proud of it. I hope I get to do it until the day I die."

In 1999, about a year after graduating with a master's degree from Syracuse University, Harris became president of the fledgling Advanced Academics Inc. — a company that proposed selling access to online courses and teachers to schools across the nation.

Chaney, 31, has also worked at Advanced Academics in the past, said Jeff Elliott, the current president of the company.