Kasich education team is out of control

A week after the Governor's orchestrated school funding plan announcement, we are still waiting on him to release his actual school funding numbers

Ohioans still can’t see how their tax dollars will be divided among local school districts under Gov. John Kasich’s school-funding plan.

Although Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols had said on Friday that the information likely would be released yesterday, it turns out there was a problem with some of the data and “it’s still being worked on.”

Kasich adviser Barbara Mattei-Smith compiled and used the data to help the administration formulate its funding plan, which was released on Thursday, Nichols said.

The administration initially said such a record didn’t exist, then said it was merely her “notes” and didn’t have to be made public, before now saying the information Kasich relied on in the $15.1 billion education plan apparently was wrong.

Perhaps if his hand picked Superintendent wasn't fired for serious ethics violations, and his hand picked President of the State Board of Education spent less time comparing her ideological enemies to genocidal maniacs, and perhaps if his acting State Superintendent and his deputy weren't both looking for new jobs, we might have had the numbers by now. But if all that wasn't enough, news breaks today of even more shocking failure of leadership at the Ohio Department of Education

The Ohio Department of Education said it fired its chief operating officer after learning he was under investigation for possessing child pornography and then finding such images on his work computer.

John T. Childs, 47, of 2239 Planetree Court on the Northwest Side, was fired on Nov. 2, said John Charlton, an Education Department spokesman. Childs had been on paid administrative leave since around Oct. 15.

“He was under investigation by local law enforcement for child pornography on his home computer. We put Childs on paid administrative leave until we could investigate the alleged charges and we could look at his work computer as well,” Charlton said.

The department turned Childs’ work laptop computer over to the State Highway Patrol, which found thumbnail images "of pornographic nature."

The Governor's education team is out of control. We wish we were just talking about bureaucratic incompetence, but sadly we are now well into the realm of serious failures of ethics and criminal behavior.

Sommers sweats gifted student question

The reckless budget includes moving $60 million for gifted student services into a larger pot of state aid with no spending requirements. As budgets are slashed across the board the clear ramification of this will be the wholesale elimination of gifted student programs around the state, as districts use this money for general revenue and operating purposes.

This is proving to be politically difficult for the administration. One the one hand it wants to claim it cares about excellence in education, but the realities, with examples like this, are running contrary.

These difficulties can be seen and heard in this interview with the administration's education czar, Mr. Sommers

Budget bill mirrors SB5 attacks on teachers

As we reported last week in our budget analysis, the budget bill contained stealth provisions that mirror some anti-teacher provisions in S.B.5. The Dispatch reports on this move

A movement might be brewing among top Republicans that could thwart a referendum on Senate Bill 5 well before Ohioans have a chance to vote on the controversial issue.

Gov. John Kasich and House Speaker William G. Batchelder are exploring a plan to include at least some of the just-passed law's provisions in the state budget, which probably won't be passed until late June.

It's notable that Republicans played all manner of legislative shenanigans to pass S.B.5 before April 6th in order to avoid a referendum on the 2012 ballot, when not only their attacks could be thrown out, but them too. Now it seems they may be inviting just such a challenge by placing S.B.5 language in the budget bill.

This might explain some of the rather cagey responses the Governor and Speaker gave

"I don't want to get into what I want to do, what I don't want to do, because then I might have to retract," Kasich said. "I think Senate Bill 5 passed; obviously, there is going to be a referendum. The House and the Senate has to work its way.

"I've submitted my budget, there will be some language on the teacher assessment, and outside of that, we'll see what the legislature does."

Asked about putting pieces of Senate Bill 5 in the budget, Batchelder, R-Medina, said on Tuesday that "these things happen."

"I don't want to make a guesstimate about it at this point. There are a number of things we are looking at, that being one."

Asked again today, the speaker said: "I guess the direct answer would be yes, but I don't know why that would happen. I think it has enough budgetary implications ... on the other hand, I don't think the governor has thought about it."

That's a lot of words and not much clarity. Almostl ike they have just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

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