Education News for 04-05-2013

Local Education News

• Ohio superintendent of public instruction presents banners to 3 schools (Coshocton Tribune)

Richard Ross, Ohio’s superintendent of public instruction, visited a couple classrooms during a stop in the county to present three schools with special Schools of Promise banners…Read more…

• Avon Lake City School officials receive $1,500,000 tax revenue advance (Lorain Morning Journal)

Avon Lake City School officials are relieved after being granted a $1.5 million tax revenue advance from the Lorain County Auditor’s Office yesterday after a late tax payment by NRG Energy Inc.…Read more…

• Board overturns decision to close Akron Digital Academy (Akron Beacon Journal)

A recent vote to close Akron Digital Academy, an online charter school sponsored by Akron Public Schools, was overturned Thursday…Read more…

• Charter school under scrutiny (Cincinnati Enquirer)

So many financial and student records are missing from the now shuttered International College Preparatory Academy in Bond Hill that Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost says he questions how nearly $1 million in federal funds was spent…Read more…

• Toledo Public Schools narrows interim superintendent search to 2 finalists (Toledo Blade)

The Toledo Board of Education pared further Thursday its candidate list for interim superintendent of Toledo Public Schools…Read more…

• Canal Winchester plans April 15 vote on open enrollment (Columbus Dispatch)

Canal Winchester could become the third Franklin County school system to open its doors to students living outside the district.…Read more…

• Taking advantage of a change in state law, Fostoria school administrators are seeking voter (Findlay Courier)

Taking advantage of a change in state law, Fostoria school administrators are seeking voter approval of an 8.15-mill continuing levy on May 7.…Read more…

• Three school tax issues on Seneca County ballots in May (Findlay Courier)

Bettsville School District is seeking renewal of a 1 percent, five-year income tax for operating expenses in the May 7 primary.…Read more…

• Clear Fork puts off drug test vote (Mansfield News Journal)

A vote to approve the first reading of the potential new Clear Fork Schools drug testing policy was postponed during a lengthy board meeting Thursday night.…Read more…

• Takin’ It to the Schools part of Alcohol Awareness Month (New Philadelphia Times-Reporter)

As part of Alcohol Awareness Month, Takin’ It to the Schools, a school-based alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention program…Read more…

• $27M Niles high school set to open next week (Youngstown Vindicator)

The new $27 million Niles McKinley High School will officially open to students Tuesday morning.…Read more…

Kasich cuts bite deep locally

A new report finds that the loss of teachers and other education staff is forcing communities into difficult choices that harm our children’s education and future, including increasing class sizes and shortening school years and days. The report shows that more than 300,000 local education jobs have been lost since the end of the recession – a figure that stands in stark contrast to previous economic recoveries. As a result, the national student-teacher ratio increased by 4.6 percent from 2008 to 2010, rolling back all the gains made since 2000. Increased class sizes have negative consequences for the future of America’s children at a time when education has never been more important to finding a good job and maintaining our competitiveness as a nation.

In Ohio, as Plunderbund notes, the effects of the Kasich budget have been similar and dramatic, as we now find local communities being asked to pick up the budget pieces

Over 63% of the school levies on the general election ballot are Kasich levies seeking to increase property tax funding for schools to replace the lost of state funding.

We catalogued the full list of school levies on the November ballot, here.

Governor John Kasich enacted Ohio's most draconian education cuts in the state's history, and as a consequence is now causing either local taxes to increase to meet the serious shortfalls, or degrading educational quality with increased class sizes, cuts in programs, nutrition, busing and sport.

He will have a chance to reverse this in his up coming budget, we urge him and the legislature to do so, our future, as the report below indicates, depends upon it Investing in Our Future Report

Is Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson trying to have it both ways

Like many, we were a little surprised to learn that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson had written a letter to the Governor and state legislators asking them to place the SB5 like provisions back in the state budget.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is urging Republican legislative leaders to adopt language in the state budget bill creating a teacher merit pay system -- similar to one in Senate Bill 5, a controversial collective bargaining law Jackson has criticized as an attack on public workers.
[...]
Along with a new merit pay system for teachers, Jackson's letter urged lawmakers to include language allowing districts to dump poor-performing teachers, remove seniority as the determining factor in deciding layoffs and bar collective bargaining in charter schools.

Despite some claims from Jackson that he opposes SB5, we were concerned a few weeks ago when we learned that the City of Cleveland was part of the efforts by the Greater Cleveland Partnership (the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce) to attack teachers. We sent an email to the Jackson administration seeking comment on this seeming contradiction

We noted in the plain dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/06/business_leaders_urge_lawmaker.html) a report that the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which the city if a member of, is advocating for Senate Bill 5 type provisions in the state budget bill.

Does the city support this position, and the $50,000 funding of this "Ohio's Campaign for Jobs" campaign's attack on teachers?
Thanks,

A week ago we got the following response

Thank you for contacting Mayor Jackson’s office regarding SB 5 and the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

I wanted to share with you that while Mayor Jackson believes that collective bargaining reform is needed, he does not support SB 5. In addition, the Jackson Administration has been advocating at the state level for amendments to the proposed budget that would prevent the redistribution of revenue away from cities.

Best wishes,
Maureen R. Harper
Chief of Communications, Office of the Mayor

So the evidence becomes clear that Jackson is seeking to have it both ways on SB5. While claiming to not support SB5, his actions include:

• Asking the legislature to put SB5 provisions back in the budget
• Asking the legislature to bar collective bargaining for teachers at charter schools
• Supporting unspecified collective bargaining reforms for public employees
• Joining with the chamber of Commerce to attack teachers and other public employees right to collectively bargain, and not taking the opportunity when asked to distance himself from these actions

We're seeking further information from the Mayors office to see if we can get a clearer picture of what exactly the MAyor does and does not support.

Rhee's partisan political agenda

The Examiner brings us news of Michele Rhee's invasion into Ohio, to peddle her variety of school reform snake oil.

We have discussed at length the problems with some of the kinds of reforms Rhee peddles. Whether it's value added assessments, teacher observations, and the inevitable playing of favorites in a subjective "performance review". None of these known problems appear to matter to some so called reformers, not least of which, Rhee.

Before ever sitting down with teachers in Ohio to understand some of the reforms already underway or being studied, Rhee instead sat down with the Governor to watch a discredited movie, one she features prominently in.

Now she is beginning, not a reform campaign seeking to bring in stakeholders - but instead launching a political campaign to lobby legislators.

Rhee has set up an Ohio Action Center online at StudentsFirst's website. "We're working to pass laws that will give Ohio's schools the power to identify, reward, and retain great educators, and give Ohio parents the choice they deserve to ensure their children receive a great education," she wrote.
[...]
in a message supporters are to send to friends, family, politicians and anyone else concerned about education in the Buckeye State.

Her website, www.studentsfirst.org, even takes on the appearance of a political campaign website, replete with prominent donation buttons and a big popup splash screen to harvest emails when you first enter the site.

Even the pledge page, again designed to harvest emails first and foremost, is nothing more than meaningless pablum anyone could agree with, rather than spelling out the true goals of her effort to undermine teachers and the teaching profession.

Rhee's brilliance as a reformer came under fire recently, when impressive teaching performance claims made during her three-years as a recruit for Teach For America in Baltimore, Maryland were shown to be exaggerated at best and false at worst.

Our emphasis. If Rhee was genuine in her goals she would be keen to sit down with educators and discuss ideas. Instead she is seeking to run what now appears to be a partisan political campaign.

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