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May

31

Chancellor Eric Fingerhut at the City Club, 5/30/08


I was unable to attend Chancellor Fingerhut’s presentations yesterday in Stark County and later at the City Club.  I did listen to the first 30 minutes of the City Club speech and expect to listen to it all on a re-run this weekend.

I find the Chancellor to have a very humble nature.  So, when he speaks, it makes what he says not just believable, but even if you aren’t sure you really believe it, or even if you think he’s being too rosy because it’s in his best interest? What he says and how he says it is very persuasive when it comes to trusting him.  This quality is very rare and valuable, especially for a politician and a leader.  No doubt, it’s at least part of why he’s able to get as much done as he does (not to blunt the value of what he proposes).

As for the substance of what I heard, Fingerhut did a great job outlining Ohio’s resources and the steps being taken to maximize those resources, both for the present and for the future.  His outline of what needs to be done in the future, for the future, sounded specific but I do wonder if some people have trouble understanding exactly how it will all work.  People are concerned about the universities they work at or want to attend and this state is large geographically and diverse demographically.  I usually err on the side of trusting my fellow residents, but I’m not sure that’s always wise!

I haven’t seen too much about the Ohio Department of Education’s superintendent stepping (Susan Tave Zelman) down but I’m interested to see the kind of person chosen to fill in and whether the structure of that role is going to change.

One question I have is the role of the state Board of Education.  I understand that different regions of the state have different needs and so by separating them into regions, we ensure that they’re being heard or feel that they’re being heard. But I would think that this is sometimes a hard structure to work with because of the political nature of the jobs. I’ve not given this a ton of thought – it’s just something that occurs to me.

Here are a few items I found that give their rundowns and/or opinions:

Martin Olson, a lawyer and blogger in Stark County (and former Republican who is now a Democrat who has run for the statehouse in the OH-50) wrote this post about the Stark event.  I wasn’t there so I can’t comment.  But here’s a more detailed description about the event from the Canton Repository.

Crain’s Cleveland Business reports on the City Club event and WKSU offers this radio report.

You can download the 10 year plan for higher education in Ohio here.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:17 am May 31st, 2008 in Education, Ohio, Politics, Social Issues, Statehouse, Ted Strickland 

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