Why does it seem like that every February, when Governor John Kasich’s budget proposal is announced, that educators in Ohio have to stop and drop what they are doing to write their local legislator? This year is no different as Governor Kasich’s budget proposal included requirements for educators to shadow businessmen as part of their teacher license renewal and require every local School Board of Education to add three local business leaders on to the school board as non-voting members. Both are touted as “helping” schools to connect to the community, but are presumably part of Kasich’s plan for schools to be run more like a business.
I have already commented on how I think schools should be run (see Adopting a Greenhouse Philosophy for Schools if you are interested), but I am not sure why Gov. Kasich is so adamant about looking at schools as a business. Schools can’t be run as a business as schools are not in the “business” of educating children. Schools are not a profit seeking organization with the ability to bring in more revenue if individual students learn more or if more individuals learn. As a matter of fact the way schools are funded in Ohio has been ruled unconstitutional since the 1997 DeRolph v. State of Ohio court case found the current system (using local property taxes) of funding schools is unsustainable and unconstitutional. The current funding system for education puts the burden on the local property owners and creates a divide between the “haves and have not's”. Let me share a quick “real life” example of this gap.
During the mid 1990’s I was teaching in a “upper-middle class”suburban school in Ohio when the opportunity to return to my alma-mater in a blue-collar community fifteen minutes down the road arose. Excited for the chance to return “home” my enthusiasm was quickly quelled when the job offer included a 6,000 dollar pay cut even after adding coaching duties. I was astonished at the difference in salary schedules for teachers just fifteen minutes away and was “forced” to decline the invitation to return home as my salary was the only income for our five family member household. This dumbfounded discrepancy between teacher salaries in relatively adjacent communities was amplified even more for me the next year when I was offered a position in a “white-collar” community seven miles north of my alma-mater. Instead of taking a pay cut of 6,000 dollars I was being offered a salary increase of $2000 dollars. Three districts within a 10 mile radius in Ohio and three distinctly different opportunities for teachers based on the economic make-up of the communities. Unfortunately, this discrepancy is not unusual in Ohio because each of these districts’ source of funding is based on property taxes. This is the basis of the DeRolph vs. the State of Ohio case which, in 1997, led to show the current funding system of schools violated the Ohio Constitution. This is a concern because research has shown that the single most important measurable cause of increase student learning was teacher experience and knowledge and between the two, the most productive investment for schools is spending on teacher education (Darling-Hammond, 2010).
I haven’t even touched upon the oddness of requiring that three business leaders be added to each local Board of Education as non-voting members. Many Boards of Education members are business leaders or at least have a good understanding of the needs of the community. I can't comment on the concern of this part of Gov. Kasich’s proposal any better than Bruce Sucher @Vandillabutler who is a local school board president from Vandalia, Ohio.
Our local School Board consists of one retired public administrator, one retired teacher, one retired BUSINESS person, and two active BUSINESSMEN, elected by the local voters of our local school district. It seems this community already has this non-issue covered.
In lieu of three more business folks, I'd like to see just ONE OHIO GOVERNOR who funded public education so as to abide by our State Constitution; and having secured adequate funding for each district, ONE OHIO GOVERNOR who did not usurp local control over such diverse items as curriculum and staff evaluations; ONE OHIO GOVERNOR who did not balance his budget on the backs of local governments; ONE OHIO GOVERNOR who did not spend almost a full year running for higher office rather than working to stop the misuse of Ohio public school tax dollars by FOR PROFIT (NON-) EDUCATIONAL COMPANIES; ONE OHIO GOVERNOR who thought that the children of our quality school district are of equal monetary investment as, oh let's say, the same "student" enrolled in ECOT; and ONE OHIO GOVERNOR who did not hold out the false hope to Ohio children and their parents that charter schools in Ohio have to meet the same standards as public schools, the real "Community Schools".
This OHIO GOVERNOR is trying to kill public education, a major component of a free and democratic society. This does not bode well for the future of Ohio or Ohio children.
This post is already too long and I haven’t even mentioned the push for charter schools or the College Credit Plus by Gov. Kasich. Long story short, please consider, once again, “dropping what you are doing” to contact your local legislator to share your concerns about the Governor’s most recent budget and its potential impact on public education in Ohio.
References
Darling-Hammond, Linda (2010). The Flat World and Education. New York, NY: Teachers College
Press.
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