Why Slashing School Budgets is Bad News

I could be just talking out my ass here, but I think the American education system is pretty broken.

I attend classes at Columbus State.  I'm surrounded by people who graduated high school with 3.5+ GPAs...who are completely unable to handle a simple English 101 essay, or comprehend both sides of an equation must balance.  I hear stories regularly from friends who are teaching college courses as instructors and graduate assistants...and am amazed their students have high school diplomas.

For whatever reason, high school has become a little safe bubble where nothing bad ever happens, not even a failing grade.  I think it boils down to a "survival mode" mentality in schools.  Too many teachers are worried about being the target of the next layoff and don't want to stand out.  Too many administrators are worrying about their budgets instead of education.  Too many politicians sticking their ill-informed noses into the education system and making changes to something they don't understand.

We need to figure out a way to improve education, to graduate people who are prepared with the knowledge--but more importantly the thought-processes--to move on, into business or high education or public service.  This is not going to happen in the current environment.  Too many people who would make excellent teachers, who want to teach, go into other fields because people like John Kasich make life too difficult.

School districts aren't hiring teachers.  So what's the point in getting an education degree?  An ENTIRE GENERATION of teachers are either passing up the chance to pursue their calling, or aren't being allowed to do more than substitute teach a couple times a week.  The new blood, the innovation, the passion that could save our country from mediocrity is being rejected.

But don't worry.  John Kasich is gonna save us.  He's going to break the teachers union.  He's going to cut so much funding all school districts will have no choice but to go bare-bones, stick to basics, not risk any changes.  And rest assured he's NEVER going to attempt education reform...that would be EXPENSIVE, right?  And besides, he'll use the old GOP cop out; "That's a local issue."

Too bad the local authorities don't have the money to solve the problems.

Ohio, nice work back in November.  Unless something drastic happens, you've helped usher in the fall of American supremacy within the next generation.

Kasich Hates Children, the Future

I just read the Dispatch's report on the effect Kasich's budget will have on school districts state wide.

All I can say is, if any of you people who voted for him last November were expecting enlightened leadership, this is proof that you were wrong.  And we'll be paying the price for generations.

The man claims the budget increases spending for education.  While this is TRUE, there is a slight increase in spending over the 2 year budget, it's NOT the full story.

But tangible property tax reimbursement?  A key part of many district budgets?  He's speeding up the elimination of that revenue.  Sucking away a HUGE source of income from many districts, especially those districts getting 2% of their income from that source (that money is being eliminated right away).

There's also this pesky problem with Federal money.  Stimulus money was being used by a lot of districts to plug gaps in budgets...that money is gone.  And with the attitude in Washington, I don't think any more aid is forthcoming (nor should Congress send more money...this is a state and local issue, not a Federal one).  But the Federal money is gone, and it was keeping a lot of districts from collapse.  Kasich's answer to that?  "It's not a good idea to operate on one-time money."

By now, it should be clear why Kasich is pushing SB 5 so hard.  The only way schools will be able to lay off enough expensive teachers is by breaking the union.

Well!  I feel good about raising children in this state, don't you?

Strickland: Wrong Governor for Era?

I like Ted Strickland. I think he's done a solid job as Governor, and I'd probably vote for him again without too many qualms.

...but this year, he seems to be on another planet. Or maybe just another era. It almost seems like he's been nursing these big legacy projects for a while, and the fact the state is out of money won't stop him from finally going ahead.

I'm talking about two big proposals I've heard in the news in the past couple months. One is all about transportation, and the other is all about education. Both of these are VERY important, and will be the cause of our nation's continued health (or total collapse). And the plans aren't really all that bad, IMO.

So what's my beef? Simple; they're expensive, and complicated, and based on tax revenue picking back up really soon. I don't think this is the time to launch a massive restructuring of the transportation and education systems all at once.

• The Plans:

For education, Strickland would flip the funding formula on its head. Basing costs on things such as the size of schools, the student-teacher ratio, and how much teachers are paid (using an index including poverty level, property value, and college attainment of school) the idea is to get away from building a school to be "a good school" and moving toward a system built to serve students. Changes are to be phased in over 8 years, and rely on quite a bit of unsecured, one-time federal stimulus money to get rolling. The Newark Advocate has full details.

On the transportation front Strickland was equally ambitious. He proposed (and got passed the House) a bill including provisions to allow local governments to build toll roads, create passenger rail between the major Ohio cities, and use right of ways near the Ohio Turnpike to build solar and wind farms. The Senate did what Senates do and put the brakes on most of it, cutting out anything they felt was "half-baked." Several new safety laws were also nixed by the Senate, such as cameras to catch speeders in construction zones. The Columbus Dispatch can give you the full story.

Do I disagree with either of these plans? Not really. There's quite a bit of merit for designing school funding around educating students (as if that should be innovative...nevermind, that's for another post). I really like the idea of passenger rail connecting Ohio. There are elements I don't really agree with, of course...cameras in construction zones (or anywhere really) give me the willies. But really, it's not the plans themselves that worry me.

It's the SCOPE of them I take issue with. It's the fact revenues are down for the state, and not likely to pick up anytime soon. I worry about how a lot of the education plan assumes stimulus money as a big chunk of the funding. We're talking about systemic changes without systemic funding. That's just not the sort of governing I'd like to see when times get rocky.

It's not fiscally responsible, and there's too many citizens relying on state support to not be smart with tax dollars.