More Sen. Peggy Lehner Please

State Sen. Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering) is proving herself to be an unusual Republic legislator. One who has a keen understanding of education issues, and a willingness to listen and work with educators, not just tow the ideological line.

The first piece of evidence being her attempt to fix the problems with the 3rd grade reading guarantee law, via SB21 which she sponsored and shepherded through the Senate on a 30-1 vote, and then passage through the House (albeit with some questionable changes having been made).

Now comes news of her attempt to bring Ohio's preschool efforts back from the dead

A Senate Republican leader on education policy wants to create a $100 million voucher program over the next two years to allow thousands of low-income Ohio children to attend preschool.

For every dollar Ohio spends on early childhood education, the return is $10 or more, said Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering. The need to have students enter kindergarten prepared to learn is more vital than ever, she and others argued, especially as the state implements a new requirement that students pass a reading exam in third grade or risk being held back.

“So many of our children come to kindergarten two or three years behind their peers, and we’re trying to catch them up before third grade,” Lehner said. “If we don’t catch them up, they don’t have a prayer of passing that third-grade reading guarantee.”

This would be a welcome policy change of direction after the Governor's shameful evisceration of early childhood education in his previous budget, and unwillingness to restore those cuts in the current proposal

A decade ago, more than twice as many Ohio children were enrolled in the state’s preschool program than now.

According to a recent report by the National Institute for Early Education Research, in 2011-2012 total state enrollment for preschool was 9,379. The state only paid for 5,700 of those students; the rest were paid for by parents, local dollars or federal funds.

Compare that to the 2001-2002 school year when 23,599 Ohio children were enrolled in the state’s preschool program.

Although the situation isn’t unique to Ohio, the state did see the most drastic drop in early childhood education enrollment in the nation over the last decade.

According to NIEER, Ohio’s decline in the number of preschoolers in state funded programs is the result of state budget cuts over the last few years.

Kudos to Sen. Peggy Lehner, and here's hoping more of her colleagues follow her lead of listening to educators concerns.

We note that Steve Dyer at 10th Period has some concerns about this pre-school proposal.

SB21 - Brings changes to 3rd grade reading law

Earlier this week, the Ohio Senate passed SB21 (30-1), a bill that would alter requirements of the 3rd grade reading guarantee. The changes were a positive step, and will make it easier for schools and educators to meet the standard, that previously were nearly impossible to meet.

According to a Gongwer report

The bill would eliminate language that required teachers to "be actively engaged in the reading instruction of students for the previous three years," which was seen as a roadblock to hiring new teachers or other qualified educators and was considered a very difficult or nearly impossible standard to meet.

"Given the importance of the third-grade reading guarantee to the future of our children, we listened very carefully" to the suggestions of principals and superintendents, sponsoring Sen. Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering) said.

The bill also includes

• Closing the loophole whereby a child could avoid being held back by skipping the test.
• Exempts students who have significant cognitive disabilities
• Removes "credential" and replaces it with "completion of a program" which would cover programs, such as Orton-Gillingham, that do not produce a credential upon completion.
• Replaces a value-added score requirement when the teacher is an effective reading instructor, as determined by criteria established by ODE.
• Allows schools the authority to get a waiver by resolution for their action plan required when the district is unable to hire sufficient teachers with the approved credentials.

The lone no vote was Sen. Joe Schiavoni who said he voted against the bill because, although he supports the policy, the lack of funding is a problem.

"We need to put the $130 million, the $100 million-dollar tag on this to help schools pay for this," he said.

Sen. Gardner, who will chair the subcommittee that will hear the K-12 portion of the budget bill, said he expects to see bicameral, bipartisan support to provide more funding to support the goals of the TGRG in that legislation.

Let's hope so. It's not often we get education bills moving in the right direction. This bill still needs to pass the House.

You can read the full text of the bill, here. For those who would prefer a more plain english explanation, here's LSC's analysis.

SB21 - 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee Changes by

No laughing matter

Hearings on the education MBR, in the Ohio House and Senate, took place yesterday. The hope for some relief from the draconian budget cuts enacted last year faded, according to a report from Gongwer

Much of the MBR debate centered on a failed Democratic amendment to provide $400 million for schools and additional funds for local governments, as the minority party continued the argument that the bill does nothing to address communities hit hard by the Kasich Administration's decision to slash local government funds to help balance the state's coffers.

Rep. Ron Amstutz (R-Wooster), chair of the House Finance & Appropriations Committee and the sponsor of the bill "by request," kicked off the debate by stating that the measure is in keeping with the restrained spending in the biennium budget passed last spring (HB 153).

"Clearly, we are steady as she goes, which is a good thing," he said. "Because we are on track, we are able to deal with a bill here today that doesn't make further difficult decisions."

It's a strange world we live in where thousands of teachers, support professionals, cops and firefighters are losing their jobs, weakening communities is considered "a good thing", but the Governor's reaction was even more shocking, Mr. Kasich bursts out laughing when asked about the push for more spending and what he thinks is an appropriate level for the Budget Stabilization Fund. He also suggested that any attempt to add significant appropriations to the measure would be vetoed.

It's no laughing matter. The rhetoric is about improving educational achievement, the means appears to be by slashing budgets. Headlines from just this week include

• Mason Schools to cut 39.5 staff positions next school year
• YEA chief to teachers: Expect layoffs
• 32 teachers to be laid off as retirements and departures snowball
• Akron schools must make deeper cuts to avoid deficit
• The real Cleveland crisis

We're in a funding crisis. The legislature needs to step up and fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.

In other news, the proposed A-F grading system came in for a lot of questions

Mr. Cohen said feedback to ODE on the proposal so far has focused on four topics:

• The value-added component should carry more weight than others in the final grade.
• The scale of grades for the student progress component is unfair given a grade of "C" is assigned for districts that have "met" value-added expectations for two consecutive years.
• The threshold for "A" grades should be lowered and traditional rounding rules should be applied.
• Pluses and minuses should be applied to the grades.

Sen. Sawyer said that because many districts will go to the ballot seeking a levy this fall, the new scores, which are expected to be lower than previous ones, could be difficult for the districts to deal with as they ask voters to support their work to improve student performance.

Mr. Cohen said the current scores, which show a large portion of districts as "excellent" or better, will lose their meaning for the public. The simulation of what schools' grades would look like under the new scoring was merely that, and it is unclear how the public will react to the actual grades.

Sen. Joe Schiavoni (D-Canfield) asked if there is a score for things such as extracurricular activities offered and the like, which some people would attribute to whether a school system is a good one.

Mr. Cohen said ODE has considered looking at other measures, such as remediation rates; but the report card largely reflects assessment-based metrics.

Sen. Lehner asked if a report card could be developed for charter school authorizers in the same way school districts have report cards based on the performance of students in all the district's school buildings. Mr. Cohen said that would be possible.

If we had to guess, we expect that the technicals of the grade will see some minor modifications, and the implementation date will be pushed back a year to coincide with the introduction of common core.

Are Ohio's Republicans threatening to pass SB5 again if it is defeated?

After the SB5 debate last night, State Sen Niehaus was asked "If you look at the polls they seem to indicate that voters, even though they are polling against SB5 support portions of it, are you prepared in the senate to move forward worth separate legislation if this fails next month?"

State Sen. Neihaus responded, "Well I think Senator Faber spoke to it, I mean the issues that drove the necessities of having SB5 or issue 2 haven't changed. were on an unsustainable path we cannot continue paying the cost of local government level or state level so those fundamental factors have not changed so we have not prepared anything at this point, given the fact that the situation will remain exactly the same on Nov. 10, then we certainly have an obligation to the voters and residents of Ohio to find a way to make sure, to ensure the continuation of local government services in a reasonable way"

You can fast forward to the 2minute 37 mark for the exchange

I cannot imagine anything that would great more chaos and anger than thwarting the will of Ohio's voters.

Sen. Peggy Lehner (R) responds to JTF

Sen. Peggy Lehner (R) is the first State Senator to respond substantively to our questions. Educators should take the opportunity to contact Sen. Lehner to discuss merit pay, as she appears open to constructive dialogue on that issue.

I will try to answer each of your questions.

1. I support QUALITY in schools whether traditional public, community or private. If schools receive public dollars we have the right to demand that they provide a good education. I therefore support policies that hold schools accountable. I don't mind if new charters open up if I can have some assurances that they will be well run and can demonstrate effectiveness. If they fail to live up to those expectations they should be shut down. I hold traditional public schools to the same standards. Schools consistently in Academic Emergency should be reconstituted or shut down. I refuse to accept that some kids can't learn and therefore we should expect substandard results.

I do not support the charter provisions contained in the House version of the bill and will work aggressively to have them removed. For profit schools with little or no accountability are non starters in my book.

2. We know that the single most important factor in student achievement over which we have any control is the effectiveness of a teacher. ( We can't pick a students family). An ineffective teacher for one year can put a child behind several months...two or three in a row can be devastating. While I believe that 95% of teachers do their job very well unfortunately some of our most challenging students also are most likely to end up with the least effective teachers. This has to end. The seniority system allows inferior teachers to hang around far too long and robs the superintendent the ability to place teachers in the classrooms where they are most needed. It is not easy to evaluate teachers but frankly I wish teachers themselves would roll up their sleeves and help us figure out how to do it right. Several of my children are teachers. I grew up in a schoolhouse literally, as my mother was the headmistress and founder of a private school. I KNOW that you can tell a good teacher from a bad one...we just need to figure out the best way to assure we are using objective measurements. As I look for the best language to insert in the Senate I am seeking out the advice of educators, not my fellow legislators. Any teachers interested in helping with this critical challenge will be welcomed.

3. I am not at all happy about the cuts to education...nor am I happy about the cuts to nursing home, home health care, Help Me Grow, Mental health services, health care or any of the other items in this budget. However I also recognize that an $ 8 Billion budget deficit is monstrous. There simply is NO money. In order to fill this budget deficit through a tax increase we would need a 46% increase in income taxes or a three cent sales tax increase. Does anyone have the stomach for that?

I am desperately looking for some additional revenue and education will certainly be one of my priorities if I find any pots of gold but I am telling you this is REALLY tough.

Hope this helps...don't hesitate to contact me with any additional questions...and like I said I am always open to constructive input from teachers!

Sincerely,
Peggy

Sen. Mark Wagoner (R) responds to JTF

State Sen. Mark Wagoner (R) wins the silver medal for being the second legislator to responsd to our recent letter. Here it is.

Thank you for your e-mail regarding House Bill 153, the state budget bill. I always appreciate hearing directly from constituents.

Creating a balanced state budget that provides value to taxpayers and improves the quality of our government’s services will be no easy task, and your input is important to me. House Bill 153 is currently undergoing hearings in the Senate Finance Committee. As you can imagine, my office receives a large volume of e-mails, letters, and phone calls regarding the budget. Although I do not have the pleasure of serving on the Finance Committee, please know that I value the information that you share with me. I will certainly keep your concerns and suggestions in mind as I continue to monitor developments in the budget closely.

Thank you again for your email. I encourage you to contact my office at (614) 466-8060 if you would like to discuss the budget or any other issue in further detail.

Sincerely,

Mark Wagoner
Ohio Senate
2nd District

Didn't really answer our questions either does it?