Where the polls stand - 6 weeks out

With just 6 weeks of campaigning left, the President continues to hold a strong position.

In the Electoral College, Real Clear Politics calculates that the President currently holds the edge with 247 votes to Mitt Romney's 191, an increase of 10 votes for the President since last week.

In Ohio, all polling continues to show the President with a small, but significant lead.

The NYT polling analyst, 538, also shows President Obama with a large projected win in the electoral college

In Ohio, President Obama is projected to have a 76.5% chance of prevailing - his largest margin to date.

Not included in these analysis is a just released poll by Ohio's newspapers, which showed the Presdient leading Mitt Romney 51-46. The very same poll also confirmed polling trends that Sen. Sherrod Brown leads Josh Mandel by a sizable margin 52-45

Substitute House Bill 153 COMPARISON DOCUMENT As Reported by Senate Finance

Here's the HB153 comparison document as reported out of the Senate finance committee yesterday. The full senate vote is expected later today. The bill still contains draconian cuts to public education, and provisions to retest teachers in the bottom 10% of schools. However, merit pay and for profit charter provisions, along with 12/12 STRS cost shifting is not included.

Substitute House Bill 153 COMPARISON DOCUMENT As Reported by Senate Finance

Kasich makes false claims to state workers

As signature collection for the SB5 repeal effort gets under way today , it comes as no surprise that the Kasich administration has begun to use its position to propagandize state employees

On one front, the governor ordered Department of Administrative Services Director Robert Blair to issue a letter to the state's 57,520 employees that highlights "key facts" of Senate Bill 5 and included an endorsement from Blair of the switch to a merit-based pay system.

Plunderbund has a copy of the letter, and debunks some of the false claims it makes.

Apr 21 2011 DAS Dir Blair Re SB5

School district field-tests 52 (yes, 52) new tests on kids

To see where public education is being driven, let’s look at a school district in North Carolina where students in every grade were used as guinea pigs this spring to help field-test a total of 52 -- yes, 52 -- new standardized tests this spring, kindergarteners included.

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