Romney’s plan would cut education, drastically

During the last Presidential debate, Mitt Romney surprised a lot of watchers by claiming, “I’m not going to cut education funding. I don’t have any plan to cut education funding.”

But according to his own plan, that claim doesn't hold water, as Innovation Ohio point out, after looking at his plan

But that’s exactly what his plan proposes. From “The Romney Program for Economic Recovery, Growth, and Jobs”:

Reduce federal spending as a share of GDP to 20 percent – its pre-crisis average – by 2016.

Even while it cuts total spending to 20 percent of the nation’s economy, compared to 23 percent today, the plan also promises to increase the rate of growth in GDP, but also increases spending on defense and holds Social Security and Medicare harmless. To make the numbers work, Romney has admitted it will require nearly $500 billion in annual cuts by 2016.

That kind of money is not going to come exclusively from eliminating Big Bird.

Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress have calculated that the plan will result in across-the-board cuts to remaining federal programs equal to 11 percent in 2013, and averaging 39 percent a year over the next decade.

What does that mean for education?

According to the Ohio Department of Education, in 2011, Ohio school districts received $1.7 billion in federal education funding.

In 2013, this means Ohio schools would be cut by $189 million. Over the decade, schools would see $669 million less, each year, under the Romney plan.

We know candidates often try to put their plans in the best possible light, but Romney’s claim he won’t cut education doesn’t hold up.

Education News for 07-17-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Schools facing reading issues (News-Sun)

More than one in five third-graders in a dozen Miami Valley school districts were not proficient in reading last year, according to 2010-11 report card data. In Dayton and Jefferson Twp., about 45 percent failed to meet that state standard, while in Springfield it was about 37 percent and Middletown, 30 percent. School districts are taking steps this summer to prepare for the new state third-grade reading guarantee, which would generally require districts to hold back third-graders starting in 2013-14 if they are not reading at grade level. Read more...

• Ohio’s education challenge (Vindicator)

Gov. John Kasich, a man who does not shy away from challenge, is saying that he intends to work with the legislature to come up with a better way to fund the state’s schools, likely in time for next year’s new state budget. Meanwhile, members of the General Assembly are doing the homework needed to craft reform. Parents who think their district is doing great might be shocked to find out that, compared with national achievement-test scores, in many cases student performance is substandard. Read more...

Local Issues

• Backpack program helps parents feed kids (Middletown Journal)

MIDDLETOWN — It sounded like she was talking about more than a plastic grocery bag full of six meals for her children. “This is a godsend,” Julie Oglesbay, 44, a mother of two children, said Friday afternoon at the Catalina Manufactured Home Community. “As a mother, you always want your kids’ stomachs full. This helps tremendously.” Because of a $1 million grant from Governor John Kasich’s office, a Summer Weekend Backpack Meals program was established this year in the state, including the Middletown area. Read more...

• Canton City Schools students learn guitar in summer program (Repository)

CANTON — Newly formed non-profit, Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) teamed up with Canton City Schools’ Arts Academy at Summit, the University of Akron’s guitar department and McKinley High School to offer summer guitar lessons to City Schools students. Led by Arts Academy music instructor George Dean and James Marron, guitar professor at the University of Akron, the program will culminate in a free concert for the public. Read more...

Editorial

• The Creativity-Testing Conflict (Education Week)

Doublethink is "to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them," according to George Orwell, who coined the phrase in his novel 1984. American education policymakers have apparently entered the zone of doublethink. They want future Americans to be globally competitive, to out-innovate others, and to become job-creating entrepreneurs. Read more...

Teachers And Their Unions

One of the segments from “Waiting for Superman” that stuck in my head is the following statement by Newsweek reporter Jonathan Alter:

It’s very, very important to hold two contradictory ideas in your head at the same time. Teachers are great, a national treasure. Teachers’ unions are, generally speaking, a menace and an impediment to reform.

The distinction between teachers and their unions (as well as those of other workers) has been a matter of political and conceptual contention for long time. On one “side,” the common viewpoint, as characterized by Alter’s slightly hyperbolic line, is “love teachers, don’t like their unions.” On the other “side,” criticism of teachers’ unions is often called “teacher bashing.”

So, is there any distinction between teachers and teachers’ unions? Of course there is.

People who disagree with policies traditionally supported by teachers’ unions, or support policies that unions tend to oppose, are not “anti-teacher.” That’s kind of like arguing that fighting against environmental regulations is tantamount to hating members of the National Wildlife Federation. It’s certainly true that the rhetoric in education can cross the line (on both “sides”), and extreme, motive-ascribing, anti-union statements are understandably interpreted as “bashing” by the teachers that comprise those unions. Some of the discourse involving unions and policy is, however, from my (admittedly non-teacher) perspective, more or less substantive.

So, you can “love teachers and disagree with their unions,” but don’t kid yourself – in the majority of cases, disagreeing with unions’ education policy positions represents disagreeing with most teachers. In other words, opposing unions certainly doesn’t mean you’re “bashing” teachers, but it does, on average, mean you hold different views than they do.

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Sen. Peggy Lehner (R) responds to JTF

Sen. Peggy Lehner (R) is the first State Senator to respond substantively to our questions. Educators should take the opportunity to contact Sen. Lehner to discuss merit pay, as she appears open to constructive dialogue on that issue.

I will try to answer each of your questions.

1. I support QUALITY in schools whether traditional public, community or private. If schools receive public dollars we have the right to demand that they provide a good education. I therefore support policies that hold schools accountable. I don't mind if new charters open up if I can have some assurances that they will be well run and can demonstrate effectiveness. If they fail to live up to those expectations they should be shut down. I hold traditional public schools to the same standards. Schools consistently in Academic Emergency should be reconstituted or shut down. I refuse to accept that some kids can't learn and therefore we should expect substandard results.

I do not support the charter provisions contained in the House version of the bill and will work aggressively to have them removed. For profit schools with little or no accountability are non starters in my book.

2. We know that the single most important factor in student achievement over which we have any control is the effectiveness of a teacher. ( We can't pick a students family). An ineffective teacher for one year can put a child behind several months...two or three in a row can be devastating. While I believe that 95% of teachers do their job very well unfortunately some of our most challenging students also are most likely to end up with the least effective teachers. This has to end. The seniority system allows inferior teachers to hang around far too long and robs the superintendent the ability to place teachers in the classrooms where they are most needed. It is not easy to evaluate teachers but frankly I wish teachers themselves would roll up their sleeves and help us figure out how to do it right. Several of my children are teachers. I grew up in a schoolhouse literally, as my mother was the headmistress and founder of a private school. I KNOW that you can tell a good teacher from a bad one...we just need to figure out the best way to assure we are using objective measurements. As I look for the best language to insert in the Senate I am seeking out the advice of educators, not my fellow legislators. Any teachers interested in helping with this critical challenge will be welcomed.

3. I am not at all happy about the cuts to education...nor am I happy about the cuts to nursing home, home health care, Help Me Grow, Mental health services, health care or any of the other items in this budget. However I also recognize that an $ 8 Billion budget deficit is monstrous. There simply is NO money. In order to fill this budget deficit through a tax increase we would need a 46% increase in income taxes or a three cent sales tax increase. Does anyone have the stomach for that?

I am desperately looking for some additional revenue and education will certainly be one of my priorities if I find any pots of gold but I am telling you this is REALLY tough.

Hope this helps...don't hesitate to contact me with any additional questions...and like I said I am always open to constructive input from teachers!

Sincerely,
Peggy

News for March 10th, 2011

After news that the Wisconsin legislature steam-rolled through their assault on collective barainging, steam appears to be building for an even more radical effort in Ohio, as the Dispatch reports

House Speaker William G. Batchelder now says he hopes to bring the collective-bargaining bill to the floor for a vote next week, after indicating for the past several days that he wanted to hold three weeks' worth of hearings.

Asked whether the timetable had suddenly been moved up, the Medina Republican said it will be the "equivalent" of three weeks of hearings "because they're going to meet every day."

Teacher Ms. Johnson took the message to Washington

Facing a full Congressional hearing panel, in front of a packed house, Ohio teacher Courtney Johnson took a seat Tuesday and methodically laid out how attacks on workers’ rights and cuts to education will affect her students.

“Ever-deepening cuts to our public schools send the dual messages to our kids that, one, it is not a priority that they get educated; and two, that we have given up on finding better solutions to our problems,” Johnson told the 23 members of Congress. “Many of us are not willing to send those messages, and I know that we are not alone. Just watch the news and you will see Americans are not ready to give up on our kids.”

Clad in red as part of the national Wear Red for Public Ed on Tuesday movement, Johnson spoke eloquently and passionately about how teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. The English teacher at Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School in Columbus, Ohio, is a member of the Ohio Education Association.

It's widely reported that on the day of the budget the Govenor will be holding a downhill style meeting

Gov. John R. Kasich announced today that on the day he sends his budget proposal to the General Assembly he will also hold an Ohio town hall meeting to discuss the state's budget challenges and his proposed solutions to them. The meeting will be held on the evening of Tuesday, March 15 at the Capitol Theater in Columbus and will be broadcast live on the internet and via satellite to Ohio television stations. After presenting the budget plan Kasich and his cabinet will take questions from the theater and online audiences.

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