February 2009

Governor’s school-funding plan is a step forward »

2/28/09  Columbus Dispatch Letter  The Feb. 19 Dispatch editorial “Back to school” blessed a few items in the governor’s education plan but condemned the approach of prescribing inputs. The criticism may stem from a lack of understanding of the role that specific resources play in producing results. The students attending schools that demonstrate favorable results [...]

Funding formula: Schools plan may be short by $1 billion–Strickland assumes teacher salary that is too low, some say »

2/28/09  Columbus Dispatch  Jim Siegel Gov. Ted Strickland’s promise to fund an adequate education for all students could fall short by up to a billion dollars because he is grossly underestimating the amount needed to pay teachers, some experts say.   Strickland’s new “evidence-based” school-funding formula calculates how many teachers each district needs but then [...]

New East High gets kudos at Coleman’s speech »

2/27/09 Columbus Dispatch Blog Simone Sebastian The spotlight was on Mayor Michael B. Coleman, but the newly renovated East High School stole the show at last night’s State of the City address. “It’s both functional … and it’s beautiful,” said City Councilman Hearcel F. Craig, Class of 1967. Craig and First Lady Frankie Coleman shared [...]

2 school-board members appeal elections ruling »

2/27/09  Columbus Dispatch  Simone Sebastian Columbus school-board President Carol Perkins and board member Bryan O. Steward will challenge the county elections board’s decision to remove them from the November ballot, they announced today. The Franklin County Board of Elections decided last week that Perkins and Steward did not have enough valid signatures on their petitions [...]

Keeping tabs on education portion of stimulus »

2/27/09 Cleveland Plain Dealer Op-Ed Sharon Broussard Like most governors, Ohio’s Ted Strickland desperately wanted the $54 billion national education stimulus money that President Obama signed into law to support his school reform program and staunch the deficits in local schools. So did groups like Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group for poor kids, [...]