States have made steep cuts to education funding since the start of the recession and, in many states, those cuts deepened over the last year. Elementary and high schools are receiving less state funding in the 2012-13 school year than they did last year in 26 states, and in 35 states school funding now stands below 2008 levels — often far below.
Ohio has fared particularly poorly under current Governor John Kasich, with the 7th largest per student cut in the nation
The “cuts-only approach” hasn’t worked, and many municipalities will have to raise revenue or cut needed services, said Jon Shure, the center’s director of state fiscal strategies. “What you’re seeing is that the jurisdiction-of-last-resort is now the one that has to honestly confront the situation because the buck has been passed.”
We're now seeing tax increases in local government to offset the local budget raid perpetrated by the Governor to balance his own budget. A website, www.cutshurtohio.com details a county-by-county breakdown of effects the budget has had. For example, in Cuyahoga county - where Cleveland schools reside, the cuts dwarf the $65 million budget hole the district is trying to plug
With rising tax revenues and the ability to close loopholes, there is no reason the Governor and his legislature cannot reverse this harmful trend, and use the next biennium budget to increase funding for Ohio's public school to adequate levels.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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
The corporate backers of SB5 have an official organization, with a not-so-originally named website.
Gov. John Kasich, Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, and House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, also will be involved with the group, which filed its paperwork with the secretary of state this morning.
The group's website, www.betterohio.org, says, "It's a grassroots coalition of Ohioans who support the effort to reform Ohio and to restore fairness and flexibility to middle class taxpayers, while getting the cost of government under control."
Plunderbund has already dispelled most of the untruths this astorturf organization has published. But let's take a look at their other claim - that of being a grass roots organization in favor of SB5. Let's ask a simple question. Is there any real grassroots support for SB5?
Back in February, the leading Pro-SB5 facebook group had 373 likes, today that same group still only has 1,530 likes. Compared to the leading Anti SB5 facebook group which has grown from 11,008 in February to over 17,075. The Anti-SB5 group is 10 times as large and growing 10 times as fast. And "Bulding a Better Ohio"? - it has a meagre 59 friends on the day of its launch.
Corporate backers might be able to provide the millions of dollars to be spent on attack ads, but they can't buy genuine grassroots citizen support. The kind of support that has over 10,000 on the ground volunteers who have colected over 200,000 signature in just 1 month. If further proof were needed of where the true majority opinion lies on this bill that attacks the middle class, we need look no further than poll after poll
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.
