Education News for 02-25-2013

State Education News

• 'Bad apples' mean end of tutor program (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Last year, Telina Crooms’ young daughters spent their Saturdays at the Price Hill Recreation Center doing crafts, learning yoga, listening to classical music and, most importantly, learning math at a popular Price Hill tutoring program…Read more...

• Kasich education proposals aim to cut regulations (Columbus Dispatch)

Gov. John Kasich’s proposed school-funding plan and voucher expansion have received plenty of attention, but he also wants a variety of other education-policy changes…Read more...

• Here’s what the federal budget cuts mean (Columbus Dispatch)

Title I money, which goes to the neediest school districts, would decrease by $725 million during the next year, potentially eliminating support to some 2,700 schools serving 1.2 million students…Read more...

• Cuts might be bad, but no one is panicking yet (Columbus Dispatch)

Congress has less than a week to undo scheduled spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade, but the halls of the Capitol didn’t just lack urgency last week…Read more...

• GED test, cost to change in 2014 (Hamilton Journal-News)

Impending changes to the General Educational Development test, or GED, make 2013 an important year for students who want to pass the exam and achieve his or her Ohio High School Equivalence Diploma…Read more...

• Open enrollment to face state review (Zanesville Times-Recorder)

A program that allows students to attend any participating school district in the state will be reviewed for the first time in 20 years amid consensus the tax dollars involved make winners of some districts and losers of others…Read more...

Local Education News

• State transportation subsidies put schools on the road to tax increases (Akron Beacon Journal)

Area school superintendents say they are alarmed by Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to keep the transportation budget unchanged at a time when fuel and equipment costs…Read more...

• Reynoldsburg students learning while doing in Capstone program (Columbus Dispatch)

The students base their research projects on problems they want to solve: A solar-powered cellphone charger. A hydroponic system that helps low-income families…Read more...

• Mentors at Ohio State help Latino youth (Columbus Dispatch)

At age 15, Martin Perez found himself working in a tortilla factory on Columbus’ West Side — 247 miles from his family home in Michigan…Read more...

• Columbus school board gave Harris all the power (Columbus Dispatch)

If it looks like the Columbus Board of Education hasn’t been paying close attention to the details of running a $1 billion-a-year enterprise, it’s by design…Read more...

• District eyes cuts, transportation fees (Springfield News-Sun)

Urbana City School board members are reviewing about $650,000 in potential cuts and possibly closing a school building as part of $1 million in spending reductions by the 2013- 2014 school year…Read more...

• Local teachers learn to be 'First Responders' (WKYC)

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's "Active Shooter Training for Educators" will be held in the Cleveland area all-day Monday in Valley View…Read more...

• Youngstown schools spent $7 million on substitute teachers over the last five years (Youngstown Vindicator)

THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS SPENT NEARLY $7 million on substitute teachers the last five years, with more than three more months left in this school year…Read more...

Editorial

• CCS plan addresses urgent challenges (Canton Repository)

The restructuring plan for Canton City Schools that Superintendent Adrian Allison unveiled last week will aggressively tackle two urgent challenges facing the district…Read more...

• Catching charter-school cheaters (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Recent criminal charges filed against officials at Cleveland's Lion of Judah Academy charter school for allegedly shifting $1.2 million…Read more...

• Don't rush for schools chief (Columbus Dispatch)

Conducting a search right now for a new superintendent of Columbus City Schools poses serious challenges: What top-notch executive would leap…Read more...

• Support technology education (Marion Star)

Earlier this week we published a story about middle school students taking part in a robot competition. Young teens and tweens from across the county spent the day testing their machines in competition with each other…Read more...

Kids ride filthy, broken privatized buses

One of the provisions contained in the state budget (HB153) that has gone mostly unremarked was the privatization of some education support services, such as transportation

Privatization of School District Transportation Services

Permits non-Civil Service school districts (local, exempted and some city) to terminate transportation employees for reasons of economy and efficiency and contract with an independent agent if various conditions are satisfied, including that any CBA covering employees to be terminated has expired or will expire within 60 days. The independent agent is required to consider hiring terminated employees for similar positions. In addition, the independent agent is required to recognize any employee organization, for the purposes of collective bargaining, that represented employees at the time of termination.

It's supposed to save money, mostly by firing bus drivers and then re-hiring them at lower wages and with poorer benefits.

But that isn't the only corner cutting private school busing companies appear to want to engage in.

The Columbus school district’s private bus contractor, First Student Inc., was forced to park six of its buses last week after surprise inspections found loose seats, holes in the floor and other safety issues.

The State Highway Patrol, which inspects school buses, found unsafe conditions on eight of the nine buses it checked on Jan. 18 and 19. All eight were declared unfit to drive, although two of them were repaired right away and cleared for use.

The inspection of the busses happened quite by accident, due to one bus running a red light, but when the inspectors looked at all the buses what they found was quite shocking

Inspectors noted that some of the nine buses they checked didn’t have working windshield wipers. Others had inoperative taillights, brake lights, horns and warning buzzers. Rust had eaten away at the back of one bus, leaving sharp edges and a hole where air could flow in.

Several buses were dinged for being “filthy,” with trash strewn throughout the bus and on the floor, a hazard for students as they walk the aisles.

The rest of the article details other problems with this private bus company, including it being on probation 2 previous years. This is just another dimension to the privatization of public education tax dollars under the banner of corporate education reform. $14.2 million a year for kids to ride in filthy, broken buses.

Administration - cut ESP's first

Despite analysis and news reports to the contrary, the administrations education Czar continues to state that school districts can and should meet their massive budget shortfalls without local tax increases.

Mr. Sommers said the budget proposal is as much about trying to correct a faulty funding system as it is about a lack of money. "We're real clear: Don't raise taxes at the local level either. It's time to think about ways to be more efficient in our production of educational success."

A report from the political think tank Innovation Ohio said the cuts to schools would result in the layoff of 30,000 teachers and support staff. Mr. Sommers said the administration's message has been to not start cuts with teachers and principals.

"I think any school that starts by cutting teachers is short sighted," he said.

Schools should instead make reductions in non-instructional costs such as administration, food service, transportation, human resources, etc., he said.

Clearly as much as the focus has been on teachers, this reckless budget also impacts education support professionals too. Indeed, if you take Mr. Sommers at his own word, ESP's would be first on the chopping block.

On top of the errosion of these middle class jobs, a lot of parents are going to struggle to find ways to safely get their kids to and from school because they have inflexible work schedules.

The services ESP's provide to both parents and teachers, often unrecognized, will come into stark relief if no serious adjustments are made to this reckless budget.