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Feb

6

‘Roots News: BuckeyeRINO on Kasich, Husted, Mandel & Latta in Tiffin

Filed Under Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Government, OH17, Ohio, Politics, treasurer | 6 Comments

Nothing gets me going like primary source blogging and Daniel Jack Williamson offers some today:

Former Columbus-area Congressman John Kasich gave the keynote speech at the Seneca and Sandusky Counties’ Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner last night (Feb. 5, 2009) in Tiffin.  I was in attendance to hear what he and others had to say.  You can check out this related article from the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune, if you like.  Others who spoke from the podium included Dayton-area State Senator and former Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, Cleveland-area State Representative Josh Mandel, and local Congressman Bob Latta.  Local State Senator Karen Gillmor and local State Representatives Jeff Wagner and Terry Boose were also in attendance, but did not speak.

Please visit Daniel’s post for the deets but here’s his scoop on my state rep’s remarks:

Mandel charmed the crowd with some self-deprecating humor about his youthful appearance, while reminding everyone of the dedicated women and men who serve in the armed forces.  He held up a pair of shoes with the soles and heels worn out from canvassing neighborhoods during his state rep campaigns, and promised he wouldn’t be outworked by his opponents if he officially undertakes the statewide campaign to become Ohio Treasurer.

The shoes story is a well-worn one that remains emblematic of his ambitious style.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:25 pm February 6th, 2009 in Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Government, OH17, Ohio, Politics, treasurer | 6 Comments 

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Feb

6

For-profit charter operators call Strickland cuts “crippling”

Filed Under Business, Economy, Education, Government, Law, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Ted Strickland | 4 Comments

Ya don’t think it’s the millions you’ve been spending on lobbying legislators and hiding from everyone, including State Auditor Mary Taylor that’s crippling you, huh?

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

Charter schools are getting $617 million this year, a number that would drop to about $497 million next year under Strickland’s proposal, before rising to $534 million in 2011.

“A double-digit reduction in the funding of charter schools is crippling,” said Bill Sims, president and chief executive officer of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “It’s a separate but unequal strategy for starving charter schools and their students to a slow death.”

About 82,000 Ohio students attend the state’s 332 charter schools.

The average per-pupil receipt for all Ohio public school children will be decreasing. Likewise, as for-profits, they can see like the rest of us what’s happening in every other industry – for-profit and non.

So let me just make sure I understand: Before these kinds of cuts, the free market was justification for their profit-taking and making in education. But now:

“The funding disparity is grossly disproportional to charter schools that serve high proportions of disadvantaged students,” Sims said.

Hmm – the distinctions about the kids never mattered before – it was always about the business model and a product – the education for the human child.

Of course, this is precisely why I’ve argued repeatedly against for-profit charters – because a kid’s education is not a commodity like other commodities produced in the for-profit world and shouldn’t be treated as such.  But the for-profits charters don’t all of a sudden get to press that.

Speaking of which, it will be interesting to see if my own state rep, Josh Mandel (R-Lyndhurst, 17th), pleads anyone’s case in the statehouse as it relates to education. In particular, will he plead the case of the numerous public schools in the district which will be flatlined and then have their funds decreased by 2% in 2011 (mine being just one) or that of the for-profit charters? From his campaign website:

Josh Mandel is committed to protecting our local schools from unfair schemes that send our property taxes to other parts of the state. Josh recognizes that strong schools are critical to revitalizing our area and giving our children a bright future. As our State Representative, Josh is working to protect our hard-earned dollars and improve the way schools are funded.

Why might this be a conundrum for him? Because he has taken $50,000 from David Brennan, the operator of the for-profit charter school management company, White Hat Management, over the last four years.

FYI – here’s a list compiled of the different ways in which charters are funded across the states that have them.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:27 am February 6th, 2009 in Business, Economy, Education, Government, Law, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Ted Strickland | 4 Comments 

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Feb

6

U.S. Senate global women’s issues subcommittee members

Filed Under Congress, Gender, Government, leadership, Media, Politics, senate, Sexism, Women | Comments Off

There continues to be a blackout on information about the new charge given to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women’s Issues (that last phrase is the charge added this session), but PunditMom has a good post about it at BlogHer and I’ve found a list in the Daily Digest for February 5, 2009 under “Commitee Meetings,” then “Business Meetings” of the committee’s members. Interestingly, even though Wikipedia is usually all over changes, neither it nor Congresspedia has noted the change in their listings of subcommittee’s name or subcommitee member list.

Members of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women’s Issues: 

Barbara Boxer (Chair) (D-CA)

Russ Feingold (D-WI)

Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

Ted Kaufman (D-DE) (he is the placeholder, presumably, for US VP Joe Biden’s son who is currently overseas serving in the military)

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Jim DeMint (R-SC)

John Barrasso (R-WY)

Republican Leader designee. 

Now, recall:

In the U.S. Senate, there are a total of 17 women – 13 Democrats and four Republicans. But the Dems control the Senate and the committee assignments.  Of the eight available seats for the Republicans as the minority party, not one currently is held by any of the four women GOP senators (Olympia Snow and Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas).  Given the subcommittee’s additional focus, if I were a woman in the GOP (although I know, hard to imagine), I’d be voicing off about making sure that one of those women is appointed.

But even in general – how can there not be even one GOP woman on the Senate’s standing committee on Foreign Relations? That just totally confounds me.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:38 am February 6th, 2009 in Congress, Gender, Government, leadership, Media, Politics, senate, Sexism, Women | Comments Off 

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