State Education News
- School funding formula likely coming in 2013 – AP (Dayton Daily News)
- Ohio official: State, schools to raise bar for students – Zanesville Times Recorder
- New Ohio School Funding Formula Likely Delayed Until 2013 – State Impact Ohio
- Ohio education czar leaving post – Columbus Dispatch
A key state legislative leader predicted Tuesday that a new approach to paying for Ohio’s public schools will not be complete until 2013, leaving school districts across the state to grapple with their budgets in the absence of a predictable school funding formula. Lawmakers scrapped the existing “evidence-based model” of school funding advanced by former Gov. Ted Strickland in the two-year state operating budget passed in June. The formula was sweeping but lacked the funding to be carried out. Read More…
The minimum is not going to cut it as students embark on the real world. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner wants to help raise the bar and set new standards for Ohio's public school children to meet in the next few school years. Beginning with the 2014-15 school year, some changes include new learning standards and course content in the areas of English, math, science and social studies; and new tests to be performed online and not with pencil and paper. Read More…
Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, flanked by members of the House GOP caucus, previews the party’s 2012 agenda at a Jan. 17 statehouse press conference. Ohio schools should not expect any signifcant changes in their state funding for at least another year. Schools faced major state funding cuts for the current and next school year under a funding model Ohio lawmakers enacted in June. That funding model was supposed to be temporary. But on Tuesday House Republicans announced that they plan to hold a year of hearings on the topic. Read More…
Gov. John Kasich’s education czar is leaving the administration to return to the private sector. Robert D. Sommers’ last day on the $109,990-a-year job will be Jan. 31. He plans to open an education-consulting business. Shortly after taking office last January, Kasich named Sommers as director of the Governor’s Office of 21st Century Education. A few months later, Sommers was one of three finalists for the state superintendent’s post but withdrew, saying he had been advised that Ohio’s ethics laws prevented him from taking the job. Read More…
Local Issues
- Some lament Beavercreek school district’s reduced bus service – Dayton Daily News
- Schools combat childhood obesity – WTOV-9
- Buses roll, Little Miami Schools can hire again – Cincinnati Enquirer
- Columbus schools tax-advisory panel mostly corporate executives – Columbus Dispatch
- Therapy dogs give young readers patient, nonjudgmental audience at libraries – Columbus Dispatch
- Garfield Heights Shortens School Day, Parents Blame Voters – Fox 8 Cleveland
The Beavercreek school district’s reduced busing services went into effect Tuesday, leaving some parents and students to lament the lost convenience. “There’s just more traffic,” said Cierra Young, a sophomore who rode the bus to and from school each day. “It’s taking everyone about 15 to 20 minutes longer.” Read More…
Childhood obesity is a concern all across the nation, but especially in the valley, with studies placing Ohio and West Virginia in the top 15 for childhood obesity. With this week being National Healthy Weight Awareness week, NEWS9 visited one local school to see how they try and combat the problem. Read More…
After years of no service for hundreds of students, buses will roll again Monday at Little Miami Schools, state officials overseeing the insolvent district said Tuesday evening. And for the first time in three years, the district will be allowed to rehire a part-time curriculum director as it enters the state testing period this spring. Read More…
A CEO-studded group of business leaders dominates the list of people who will recommend whether, when and by how much Columbus City Schools residents’ taxes could go up. Superintendent Gene Harris delivered eight names to the Board of Education last night. Six of those are business leaders. Read More…
Clutching the pages of Baby Max and Ruby, 5-year-old Maariya Imtiyaz was focused, stumbling only on words new to her: wiggly, giggly and blackberry.
With each new page, she raised her head to make sure that her audience — a 165-pound, 4-year-old English mastiff named Moose — was still with her. With each page, her cautious smile grew into a confident grin. Read More…
Parents, staff and children in the Garfield Heights School District are getting a hard lesson in economics.
"I don't think it's good for the children," one parent said as she picked up her son from school.
As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone and libraries are closed. Read More…