Education News for 02-07-2013

State Education News

• Rich, growing school districts do well under governor’s funding proposal (Akron Beacon Journal)

Gov. John Kasich’s office rolled out spreadsheets Wednesday showing how much money school districts will receive under his new funding formula…Read more...

• Plan means no funding growth for most schools (Chillicothe Gazette)

Gov. John Kasich’s school funding plan dramatically changes the state funding formula for districts, but most Ohio schools would see no new money under the proposal…Read more...

• Kasich details educational funding (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Most Southwest Ohio school districts were breathing sighs of relief Wednesday after Gov. John Kasich’s office released detailed funding amounts for each district…Read more...

• Susan Zelman hired by the Ohio Department of Education to work on school funding (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Susan Zelman, who was state superintendent for 10 years, has returned to the Ohio Department of Education to work with schools on funding issues…Read more...

• Most schools to get no additional funds in Kasich plan (Columbus Dispatch)

Sixty percent of Ohio school districts — including all those in Perry County, where the state’s long-running school-funding lawsuit originated — would get no additional state money in the next two years under Gov. John Kasich’s education plan…Read more...

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• Kasich funding formula favors suburban schools; TPS, other urban districts, mostly flat under (Toledo Blade)

Preliminary breakdowns of how Gov. John Kasich’s new school-funding formula will affect school districts show that growing, relatively wealthier suburban districts in metro Toledo will receive significant increases…Read more...

Local Education News

• CPS evaluation policy remains unresolved (Cincinnati Enquirer)

After months of discussion and several heated meetings with representatives from the teachers’ union, Cincinnati’s school board Monday voted 4-3 to delay a vote on a new controversial policy to evaluate its roughly 2,000 teachers.…Read more...

• Northeast Ohio schools get first look at what new state funding formula may mean to them (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

School officials across Ohio have gotten their first peek at how much state money they might get over the next two years from Gov. John Kasich's proposed funding formula…Read more...

• Second lawsuit filed in data-rigging case (Columbus Dispatch)

Another parent has sued several current and former Columbus school district leaders, saying the district’s “pattern of corrupt activity” has hurt his daughter…Read more...

• Lakota maintains high return on investment (Hamilton Journal-News)

An independent compensation study reveals the Lakota school district is spending less and getting more…Read more...

• Online Teacher Fired For Paying Former Student To Teach Class, Grade (WBNS)

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, isn’t a traditional public school, but like all public schools, classes are supposed to be taught by licensed teachers.Read more...

• Liberty hires county's treasurer services (Youngstown Vindicator)

The school board has approved using staff at the Trumbull County Educational Service Center as the district’s interim treasurer for the remainder of the school year…Read more...

• Boardman, Lordstown get largest increases in Kasich’s budget plan (Youngstown Vindicator)

While no Mahoning Valley school districts would get less state money in Gov. John Kasich’s proposed biennium budget, most wouldn’t get any more either…Read more...

Editorial

• School budget (Findlay Courier)

It will take some serious number-crunching and time before we know if Gov. John Kasich's school funding formula is any better than the current one, which was ruled unconstitutional in 1997…Read more...

• Gov. Kasich’s budget (Toledo Blade)

The state budget that Gov. John Kasich proposed on Monday reflects a healthier Ohio economy than the one his first, austere spending plan responded to two years ago…Read more...

• Kasich plan for schools sounds good (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

Reports last week that Gov. John Kasich wants to provide additional state help to school districts with meager property tax bases no doubt was received happily by some area education…Read more...

Education News for 06-22-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Kasich lauds his pick of ex-OSU quarterback for state school board (Dispatch)

Gov. John Kasich described his new pick for the Ohio Board of Education yesterday as “a man of great character,” “a man of faith” and a “great addition” to the board. On Monday, Kasich appointed former Ohio State quarterback Stanley Jackson, 37, to replace Dennis Reardon on the 19-member board and serve the final six months of an at-large term. The Republican governor’s critics raised questions about Jackson’s qualifications for the board and Kasich’s vetting process. Read more...

• Ohio schools must prep for food allergy reactions (Telegraph Forum)

Food allergies are a part of the modern day school room. Ask just about any teacher, principal and of course school nurse (for schools that still have one) and they'll tell you that food allergies are among their many daily concerns when it comes to the well-being of students. Nationwide Children's Hospital estimates that one in 20 children have a food allergy. It's no wonder school personnel must address this very serious health concern. Read more...

Local Issues

• Advocates complain that juveniles in jail aren’t getting schools’ attention (Dispatch)

They’re “off the radar” kids. Special-needs juveniles who are doing time in jails and prisons with adults are entitled to, but often are not receiving, an education behind bars. That’s the thrust of a complaint filed against Columbus City Schools and the Focus Learning Academy by the Children’s Law Center Inc. The 14-page, class-action complaint was filed with the Ohio Department of Education. It is an administrative complaint, not a lawsuit. Read more...

• City schools cut 21 positions, $3M (Dayton Daily News)

DAYTON — Dayton Public Schools approved a budget Tuesday that cuts 21 positions and $3 million for fiscal year 2012, which is slightly more than 1 percent of its projected total expenditures. Those positions are for 12 part-time home instructors, three clerical employees and six high school physical education teachers. The 12 home instructors will be laid off and the other nine employees in the affected positions will be offered employment opportunities within the district, according to spokeswoman Melissa Fowler. Read more...

• Poland board members have their work cut out for them (Vindicator)

News earlier this month that the Poland Board of Education will place a five-year, 5.9-mill additional operating levy on the Nov. 6 ballot has unleashed a tsunami of passionate protest among many in one of most respected and best performing school districts in the Mahoning Valley. Judging by those passions that range from polite questioning to outright outrage and the school board’s 0-3 record of winning additional tax-levy approval over the past two years. Read more...

Editorial

• A new tack on funding California's schools (L.A. Times)

Wouldn't it make sense for education funding in California to be transparent and equitable, with money spent according to students' varying needs? Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing to inject some overdue clarity and logic into the process by allocating to schools a flat amount per pupil, plus a large additional sum for low-income students or those who aren't fluent in English. The governor's plan is far from perfect — it's especially lacking in accountability — and the Legislature appears unwilling to support it this year for reasons both political and philosophical. Read more...

Parents *STILL* choose public schools

HB153, the budget bill, increased the availability of school vouchers for private schools from 14,000 to 30,000 last year and to 60,000 this year. Clearly the legislators was expecting a private school voucher gold rush.

When that didn't happen last year, excuses were made. This year, according to reports in the Dispatch, application levels are almost as miserable.

An additional 1,544 requests for a new special-needs voucher program were made by Sunday’s deadline.

Among the 17,438 applications for an Educational Choice Scholarship were 3,814 new applicants. That deadline was Friday. About 17,000 applications were filed last year to use vouchers this school year.

There are 60,000 vouchers available next school year for students in low-performing schools. They’re worth $4,250 for younger students and $5,000 for high-school students.

The Dispatch headline catagorizes this as "School-voucher programs prove popular". the reality and the truth is obviously quite different. Approximately 3,438 additional students have appliedfor vouchers above the original cap of 14,000. That amounts to just 5.7% of the new 60,000 cap.

The voucher expansion in Ohio is clearly a massive failure. Lawmakers obvously expected demand for these vouchers to be over 30,000, hence the increase to 60,000 this year. For those that continue to believe that parents in Ohio want "choice", for the second year in a row, they have been proven to be wrong. Parents in Ohio continue to overwhelmingly support public schools - it's time politicians listened and began to support it fully too.

Common Core, costly

The Cincinnati Enquirer has an article pointing to the logistical and expensive costs ahead to implement the Common Core Curriculum, which is set to begin in earnest in 2014. One of the first major hurdles is having the requisite infrastructure in place to accommodate the millions of computer based tests that will occur.

The new tests will be taken online, replacing the standardized No. 2 pencil-and-paper tests that Ohio schools have always used.

While local school leaders like the idea of online testing, the switch is also creating concern because it's unclear who's going to pay for the computers and software upgrades needed for the new system. District officials worry the state will pass costs onto local districts - and their taxpayers. That's something many districts fear they won't be able to afford.

At a time when requests for new school levies are proving difficult to pass, and Columbus is keen to abrogate its responsibility to funding public education, additional costs like this are sure to hit districts up and down the state hard. Not only will schools need to significantly boost their IT hardware spending, but the level of IT infrastructure needed to support these new testing requirements will also require on going IT support to keep it all running smoothly.

Without additional computers or greater wireless capability, the new tests shrink the number of computers available for remedial classes and other kinds of instruction, Farmer said.

"We'd be very much in trouble if they expect us to do all that (testing) online," he said.

Northwest voters, like Cincinnati's, rejected a combination bond issue/operating levy this month that would have paid to renovate the high schools and improve technology.

With the selection of the consortia Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC), Ohio might also expect to test its students even more.

Instead of tests once a year, the new tests will probably be taken at least twice a year, said Dennis Evans, an Ohio Department of Education spokesman.

With each of these millions of tests costing at least $14 each, it's not just the cost of IT infrastructure that needs to be contended with anymore.

Whatever the merits of these policies as tools to increase educational quality, it is clear that Ohio is going to need to find a way to invest more readily in these transitional efforts.

Teachers sacrifice and prove SB5 is not needed

Example 86734 that SB5 is not needed comes in the form of news that Delaware teachers, through the collective bargaining process, aggreed to a no-raise contract next year.

The 330-member Delaware City Teachers Association won't get raises in base pay or increases for longevity or additional education, saving the district $340,000 in the one-year deal.

Without the pay freeze approved by teachers, six additional positions would have been eliminated, Superintendent Paul Craft said. Already, the district will lose 23 positions as part of $2.5million in cuts the board made final on Monday night. Six of those jobs probably will be cut through layoffs; the rest were through attrition.

"It's a real sacrifice and a real acknowledgment of the challenges that we face, that the teachers were willing to sign a contract to give up what has always been part of the contract," Craft said of the step and education increases.

Example 86735 that teachers continue to demonstrate sacrifice for their communities comes form Worthington

Worthington teachers agreed today to replace their contract for the 2011-12 school year with a three-year pact that would include a freeze on raises, including some step increases, which are awarded for education and experience.
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"Our teachers recognize that the state budget cuts will have a devastating effect on our school district," Mark Hill, president of the Worthington Education Association, said in a statement. "We wanted to demonstrate that we want to be part of the solution."
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"This agreement is unprecedented," Superintendent Melissa Conrath said in a statement. She said that Worthington teachers "want to contribute to a solution that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the district."

Under the agreement, teachers also would pick up any additional costs of health insurance in 2014. They contribute 14 percent toward their insurance premiums.

If SB5 were to pass and eliminate the ability to collectively bargain, unprecedented deals like this would not be possible. Why break what is clearly proven to be working time and time again, all across the state?