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28

Live-blog: Ohio’s State of the State 2009


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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:02 am January 28th, 2009 in Blogging, Ohio, Politics, Ted Strickland 

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4 Responses to “Live-blog: Ohio’s State of the State 2009”

  1. 1 Village Green on January 28th, 2009 2:11 pm

    Union teacher here. I like the idea of a longer school year. Great opportunity to hire more teachers, adept in those skills for the 21st century: creativity, problem solving, communication and collaborative leadership. More drama teachers at every level!

    “Evidence-based” is the term driving us all of late.

  2. 2 brasscollarbuckeye on January 28th, 2009 2:47 pm

    The highlights:

    Expanding school year to 200 days. Gov. Strickland noted in his remarks that this number is the “international average,” and would expand Ohio’s present school calendar by 20 days annually. Extra school days mean more time immersed in subject matter, and greater flexibilty to teachers in innovating in the classroom with unique projects.

    All-day universal kindergarten. This measure puts a focus on what Strickland called “our most impressionable students,” and will likely be welcomed by parents statewide who previously had to find a way to transport children to and from half-day kindergarten or babysitters for every-other-day models.

    Eliminating Ohio’s graduation tests, replacing them with the ACT and other measures. This was the Governor’s only standing ovation from both sides of the aisle today, and one he deeply deserved. Ohio’s present method of evaluating high school seniors does nothing to prepare them for college, and barely tests competency. In addition to forcing all Ohio seniors to clear the first hurdle of college admissions processes, the Gov also stated that seniors would be required to complete a senior service project and senior capstone. This dovetails nicely with President Obama’s inaugural remarks on the “price and promise of citizenship” by requiring students to invest in their communities and mandating service. While mandates don’t create civic spirit, they can’t hurt.

    Making teachers and school districts accountable. It is not easy for a Democrat to take a stand against the interests of teachers unions, and Gov. Strickland’s bold declaration today that teachers can be fired for “good cause” and ineffective teachers should be removed from the classroom was certainly brave. He uped the ante by telling school districts that they will be audited by the Department of Education, and that the criteria used to evaluate them will now include fiscal and operational measures. Those evaluations will have sharper teeth, too, with the state promising to take over poorly run school districts and, in extreme cases, shut them down. Call it an “education bailout,” with actual consequences and follow-up.

    Tuition freezes at Ohio’s public colleges. Anything that reduces the student loan debt Ohioans carry is a good thing. Period.

    ———-

    Questions and concerns exist about:

    Boosting state contribution to funding to 59%, eliminating “phantom dollars” as calculation. This is the biggie. The state Supreme Court has, many times, ruled our funding model is unconstitutional and unfairly biases rich districts. Gov. Strickland seeks to address that problem by no longer making school districts accountable for “phantom revenue.” Phantom revenue happens when property values within a district go up, but the taxes on those properties do not. Previously, school districts were expected to count those dollars, even though they didn’t receive them. Under Strickland’s plan, they won’t be.

    This leaves a pretty big matzah ball hanging out there, and it’s this: school funding in Ohio will still be based on property taxes. While it is undoubtably a good thing that school districts won’t have to account for funny money, and that this will take a step toward providing them levels of state funding according to their actual need, it does not address the Supreme Court’s main issue with our current model: the poor/rich disparity.

    Increasing the state contribution to all schools to 59% will go a distance to mitigating that difference, but it will not eliminate it “in as much as is pracitable.” Until we come up with a plan that provides state tax dollars evenly on a per pupil basis, we’re going to fall short of full equal protection.

    Four-year teacher residency program. This proposal, which requires all new teachers in Ohio to complete a four-year residency before become full-time teachers, is the kind of innnovative thinking that has real potential to make our schools better over the long term by institutionalizing best practices. That said, there is a small problem: compensation.

    The reason doctors can afford to take four years at the beginning of their careers to learn from experienced and accomplished peers is that their eventual compensation provides an offset to their lost earning potential. As long as Ohio’s teachers can expect a median salary of only $40,000 over their entire careers, this proposal will not succeed, and has the potential if left an “unfunded mandate” to drive quality teachers out of the state.

    The extent to which any of these concerns matures into a problem depends largely on how cooperative Senate Republicans wish to be. The Governor’s commitment to education in these difficult economic times is sure to win him plaudits from parents and education advocates, but the cuts needed to other areas of the government to pay for them (up to 20% reducation in some programs) will be painful. Add that to likely Republican concerns about the on-going costs of implementing the plan long term, and the bumps in the road begin to come into focus.

    Governor Strickland ended his remarks by talking about why geese fly in formation, and asserting, “Surely, we are as smart as the goose.” The extent to which the House and Senate exercise their “goose sense” will determine how successful the Governor is in implementing his bold plans. In the depths of our economic winter, however, today’s proposals give Ohioans cause to hope for warmer and brighter days ahead.

  3. 3 David on January 28th, 2009 9:13 pm

    Give Gov. Strickland credit as to funding to attack the real problems of defining an adequate level of funding per pupil and the levy mill due to House Bill 920. No gimmicks. He took on the issues and addressed them. To address concern of school administrators of a constant return to the ballot, the Gov. proposes to allow a District to convert outside, voted mills subject to tax reduction by House Bill 920 to inside, growing mills. There is no mandate for a District to do so.

    Brasscollarbuckeye is wrong about the direction of the Supreme Court in DeRolph. The Court only held that differences of wealth of a school district should not impact in the funding formula used by the State to fund an adequate level of education. If the State determines this amount is $6,000 per pupil or $16,000 per pupil, the local contribution is 20 mills and the State will fund the rest. But if a community wants to do more it will be able to like a Shaker, Beachwood, Orange, etc. The Court did not mandate that Beachwood or Orange or Solon be brought down to raise others up. The Court in fact opposed a Robin Hood approach. Let’s also be honest, in the so-called rich districts, there are people committed to tax themselves to fund social services at a high level.

  4. 4 Tim on February 5th, 2009 9:26 pm

    If you are against Governor Ted Strickland’s plan to add 20 extra school days to the school year, please sign my petition! THANKS!!

    http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ohio-governor-ted-strickland-trying-to-add-20-extra-days-to-the-school-year

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