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Education News for 06-22-2012

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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...

Where the GOP Presidential candidates stand on education

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With congress unable to pass any meaningful legislation, the executive branch has wielded ever greater power in the education policy setting realm, most notably using Race to the Top to bribe cash strapped states to compete with each other in a race to implement all manner of unproven education reforms.

No doubt then, whomever wins the voters approval this coming November to become President, will have a large impact on public education and education policy for at least the next 4 years.

So it is, that tonight is the first step in selecting the next President, the Iowa caucuses. Where members of the Iowa Republican party will select their preferred candidate to face President Obama in November. (the Democrats will select a candidate too, but President Obama is unchallenged). For how this caucus works, the Desmoines Register has a handy guide.

We thought it would be useful to provide a guide on what each of the main GOP Presidential candidates have put forth as their education agenda.

Mitt Romney

A quick look at Mitt Romney's campaign website reveals that education isn't a priority. Under his issues tab he lists only jobs, healthcare and foreign policy. We have to turn to third party reporting then to discern his intentions. A reading of various articles reveals a candidate who falls in the corporate education reform camp. More testing, teachers with less influence, pay for test results. While he once supported the abolition of the Department of Education, he has since changed that stance.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul does feature education on his campaign website.

Ron Paul works towards the elimination of the inefficient Department of Education, leaving education decisions to be made at the state, local or personal level. Parents should have the right to spend their money on the school or method of schooling they deem appropriate for their children.

It was arduous researching into Ron Paul's political positions as one quickly descends in to a carnival of the bizarre. This post sums up the problem quite well.

Rick Perry

Like Mitt Romney, Rick Perry doesn't feature education among his list of issues on his website, but he does feature some education policy on his Gubernatorial website

Education reform has been a top priority for Governor Perry during his 20 years of public service. He has worked to raise the overall quality of education in Texas by aligning the higher education standards more closely with the needs of business, balancing accountability with incentives for teacher and school performance and increasing the emphasis on core subject areas like math, reading and science.

One of the most memorable policy positions Rick Perry has put forth has been his desire to abolish the Department of Education

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum doesn't have any education policy listed on his campaign website. This seems to be an evolving theme of the Republican candidates, and one we find troubling.

Perhaps his largest contribution to education policy was the "Santorum Amendment", which Wikipedia describes as follows

The Santorum Amendment was an amendment to the 2001 education funding bill which became known as the No Child Left Behind Act, proposed by then-Republican United States Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania, which promotes the teaching of intelligent design while questioning the academic standing of evolution in U.S. public schools. Though the amendment only survives in modified form in the Bill's Conference Report and does not carry the weight of law, as one of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns it became a cornerstone in the intelligent design movement's "Teach the Controversy" campaign.

Santorum is another Republican who believes in a limited role in education for the Federal government.

On Friday, he said people often ask what he would do at a federal level to promote his education ideas.

"I say darn little, other than talking about it. One of the things a president can do and it's important for a president to do is lead a discussion about important things in America," Santorum said.

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich features a very lengthy policy list related to education on his campaign website. The bullet points include

  • Empower parents to pick the right school for their child.
  • Institute a Pell Grant-style system for Kindergarten through 12th Grade.

  • Require transparency and accountability about achievement.
  • Implement a “no limits” charter system.

  • Establish a pay for performance system.
  • Welcome business talent in our communities into the classroom. 
Restore American history and values into the classroom.
  • Protect the rights of home-schooled children 
Encourage states to think outside outdated boundaries of education.
  • Shrink the federal Department of Education

Those are the positions, as best as we could discern, of each of the current top tier candidates in the GOP primary as they head in to tonight's Iowa caucus. According to the reputable polling prognosticator, 538, here's the current polling state of play

Certainty And Good Policymaking Don’t Mix

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Using value-added and other types of growth model estimates in teacher evaluations is probably the most controversial and oft-discussed issue in education policy over the past few years.

Many people (including a large proportion of teachers) are opposed to using student test scores in their evaluations, as they feel that the measures are not valid or reliable, and that they will incentivize perverse behavior, such as cheating or competition between teachers. Advocates, on the other hand, argue that student performance is a vital part of teachers’ performance evaluations, and that the growth model estimates, while imperfect, represent the best available option.

I am sympathetic to both views. In fact, in my opinion, there are only two unsupportable positions in this debate: Certainty that using these measures in evaluations will work; and certainty that it won’t. Unfortunately, that’s often how the debate has proceeded – two deeply-entrenched sides convinced of their absolutist positions, and resolved that any nuance in or compromise of their views will only preclude the success of their efforts. You’re with them or against them. The problem is that it’s the nuance – the details – that determine policy effects.

Let’s be clear about something: I’m not aware of a shred of evidence – not a shred – that the use of growth model estimates in teacher evaluations improves performance of either teachers or students.

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Teach For America: From Service Group to Industry

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One of the best articles written on Teach for America

Although Teach For America began twenty years ago as a well-intentioned band-aid, it has morphed into what is essentially a jobs program for the privileged, funded by taxpayers and wealthy individuals. TFA was originally designed it to serve a specific need: fill positions in high-poverty schools where there are teacher shortages.

A non-profit organization that recruits college seniors primarily from elite institutions to teach for two-year stints in high-poverty schools, preceded by five weeks of training. TFA has grown from 500 teachers to more than 8,000 teachers in thirty-nine rural and urban areas.

As TFA is expanding, it is no longer just filling positions in shortage areas; rather, it’s replacing experienced and traditionally educated teachers. To justify this encroachment, TFA claims that their teachers are more effective than more experienced and qualified teachers, and that training and experience are not factors in effective teaching. TFA supporters also defend the explosive growth of TFA as an indication that TFA is elevating the status of the teaching profession for ambitious high-achieving college students.

Unfortunately, while Teach for America has been very effective at elevating the status of Teach for America, it has not had a similar impact on the status of teaching as a profession.

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Hilliard Schools Budget

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Hilliard schools have a 6.9-mill property tax levy on the May 3rd ballot. According to the Superintendent, Dale McVey

Should Issue 7 fail, the district will make nearly $4 million in cuts in order to balance our budget for the 2011-12 school year. The list of cuts was designed to spread this difficult situation across the entire district; it takes into account the $6.5 million in recent reductions that Hilliard Schools has already made and includes:

  • eliminating all middle school athletic programs;
  • eliminating gifted instruction;
  • eliminating fifth grade band and strings programs;
  • eliminating transportation services for field trips, daycare services and FOCUS (gifted) shuttles;
  • eliminating 51.5 administrative, certified and classified positions; and, reducing 247 classified positions.

    Because of the Governors reckless budget, Hilliard City Schools may lose $5.2 million in Fiscal Year (FY) '12 (2011-12 school year) and $8.9 million in FY '13 (2012-13 school year). This would represent a 15.4 percent decrease in state foundation money for FY '12 and 26 percent in FY '13 according to the Superintendent.

    If you live in the district, or want to help, visit www.forhilliardschools.org.
    www.hilliardschools.org also has some information for you.

    Budget priorities

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    We saw the news that the Governor had decided to award Diebold $56 million

    GREEN, Ohio -- ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. will receive at least $56 million in state assistance to keep its headquarters in Northeast Ohio

    In exchange for the state building this lavish world HQ, Diebold promises it won't lay off more than 400 of its 1900 workforce. Quite the deal for a company with $2.7 billion in annual revenue.

    But that got us thinking.

    The administration has made a decision that its better to award a company that makes ATM machines for bailed out banks $56 million than to use that money to save gifted education funding which is slashed by $60 million. That, to us, is a strange priority.

    Now some might argue that one is about jobs and the other isn't. We'd disagree, but let's look at some other priority decisions being made. We scanned through news of school job losses because of this budget, in no particular order we quickly compiled this list of 525 job losses because of $45.2 million in funding cuts.

    74 jobs, $2.5 million

    In March, the board presented a long list of proposed cuts which totaled more than $2.5 million. The cuts include:

    26 teachers coming from a variety of grade levels
    8 bus drivers
    30 support staff
    Possible closing of Hooven Elementary
    Decrease building budgets by 25 percent
    Decrease of supplemental contracts

    73 jobs, $6.3 million

    Proposed State Cuts Would Deliver 'Devastating' Blow to Westlake City Schools. Between 44 and 73 jobs may be eliminated in an effort to close the budget gap.
    […]
    Westlake school officials are maneuvering on district, local and state levels to find a way to absorb $6.3 million in proposed state funding cuts over the next two school years.

    74 jobs, $3 million

    Adams County/Ohio Valley School District School tax levy going to vote

    The reductions we must make for the 2011-12 school year will be 74 positions. Reductions will include support staff including cooks, custodians and secretaries. It will include certified staff including administrators, high school teachers, elementary teachers, counselors and the elimination of some programs and instructors at the Career and Technical Center.
    […]
    The levy is a five year emergency levy. After five years it must be renewed by voters or it will be dropped. It will bring in 3 million dollars per year for the five year period.

    120 jobs, $13 million

    Pickerington teacher layoffs set
    Board approves reduction of up to 120 jobs in bid to trim budget by $13 million

    14 jobs, $2.5 million

    Delaware schools to seek levy, offer cuts
    The $2.5 million in cuts for next school year include eliminating 14 staff positions, limiting field trips and phasing out German and Latin classes.

    37 jobs, $2.9 million

    Hudson -- Almost 200 people, many of them wearing the blue union shirts of the Hudson Education Association, listened as the School Board on April 4 voted to eliminate 37 positions before the start of the 2011-12 school year.

    The eliminated positions will save the district $2.9 million in salaries and benefits but leave about 34 people out of work, according to Assistant Superintendent Phil Herman.

    133 jobs, $12 million

    Regardless of when the board does take action, members have warned Lakota residents to expect to see the deepest cuts in personnel and student programs in the district's 54 year history for next school year. Moreover, board members said the final cuts will resemble the current $12 million plan and Lakota students will face a scaled-down school system in August.
    […]
    Lakota's latest proposed cuts include 133 teaching, counseling and related classroom positions - including 28 teaching jobs at Lakota East and Lakota West high schools. Students would have also have had fewer choices as those schools return to seven daily class periods, eliminating block scheduling.

    We can all agree that there is a serious budget problem in our state, but I think we can also see that some of the decisions being made, and the priorities being pushed are only in the narrow interest of the few - and have nothing whatsoever to do with job creation or the economy.

    Not when budget priorities serve to reward financial industry companies on the backs of students, teachers and local property tax payers. Does that seem right to you?