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, which are thrilled that the money comes with powerful ropes, not just string.

“It’s a hit parade of things they have to do” to keep the federal spigot open, said Amy Wilkins, vice president of communications. Expect plenty of rope burns.

The stabilization fund mandates that governors — not state superintendents — promise to come up with a plan to distribute effective teachers equitably, a difficult charge in Ohio, with its 613 public school districts. They must also build a data-collection system so that states can collect data on what works and what bombs in the classroom, create tests that accommodate the needs of special education and foreign students and raise academic standards.

States must apply for competitive federal grants to pay for the data collection system and the teacher program. The winners are expected to submit progress reports to the federal government, she said. That monitoring will allow voters to know if the governors are ‘blowing sunshine up your skirt,” said the colorful Wilkins.

And there’s another wrinkle for Strickland. It’s unclear how his plan to cut charter public schools by 20 percent will fly with a new administration that has proudly supported them.

Still, Wilkins doesn’t think the stimulus package is big enough to close the gap between America’s best public schools and the rest.

“This bill helped us dodge a bullet — well, it was more like a freight train — but it hasn’t helped us move the ball down the field,” she said.

Well, with $54 billion in hand, the governors ought to at least try.