The Governor's public relations campaign to ram through his "evidence-based" school funding and reform package is in full swing. We've seen the speeches, rallies, the YouTube videos, and education groups dutifully step forward to endorse the Governor's original plan and more recently the House version of HB1. How do you imagine that all happens? And more importantly, who pays for the public relations plan? Would you be surprised to know this is all on the taxpayers dime?
Dr. Stanford forgot to mention that if your board decides to pass the resolution to memorialize your support, please send it him so he can use it to lobby the Senate to pass the plan.
The accompanying resolution (view here) is also interesting. The resolution unabashedly once again commends Governor Strickland while claiming that the plan will make Ohio internationally competitive, prepare students for the demands of the 21st Century, and establish high levels of accountability and transparency. (Would that be the Governor's plan or the substantially altered House version?) The attention-grabber in the resolution isn't the text itself, rather, it is the fact that the draft resolution was originally penned by someone in the Cleveland Heights - University Heights School district, the same school district that until recently employed State Superintendent Debra Delisle.
So Cleveland Heights - University Heights staff works for the Governor? And Governor Strickland's staff is writing local school board resolutions? Shouldn't they working on something like creating jobs, reforming Medicaid, or balancing the budget?
So in the next several weeks when you see the spontaneous outpouring of school board support for HB1, remember where it came from and more importantly who paid for it. It's just another example of our tax dollars in action.
Beginning last week, local school board members from around the state began to receive their marching orders. Last week state employees, utilizing a state government maintained email list, began sending a letter from Governor Strickland's education policy assistant Dr. John Stanford along with a sample resolution of support.
Dr. Stanford's letter is ostensibly in response to requests by "several" board members and is designed to help "memorialize" school districts' support for the "21st century education reform plan."In my travels around the state discussing the reform plan over the past several months, several of you have requested a sample resolution that your board may consider to support the education reform plan in HB1. In response to this request, our team in the Governor’s office created the attached sample board resolution that your school district may use to memorialize the district’s support for the 21st century education reform plan in HB1. If your board decides to pass a resolution of support, please forward a copy of the resolution and board action to me for my records. (View the actual letter: www.stateofohioeducation.org/stanford.html.)
Dr. Stanford forgot to mention that if your board decides to pass the resolution to memorialize your support, please send it him so he can use it to lobby the Senate to pass the plan.
The accompanying resolution (view here) is also interesting. The resolution unabashedly once again commends Governor Strickland while claiming that the plan will make Ohio internationally competitive, prepare students for the demands of the 21st Century, and establish high levels of accountability and transparency. (Would that be the Governor's plan or the substantially altered House version?) The attention-grabber in the resolution isn't the text itself, rather, it is the fact that the draft resolution was originally penned by someone in the Cleveland Heights - University Heights School district, the same school district that until recently employed State Superintendent Debra Delisle.
So Cleveland Heights - University Heights staff works for the Governor? And Governor Strickland's staff is writing local school board resolutions? Shouldn't they working on something like creating jobs, reforming Medicaid, or balancing the budget?
So in the next several weeks when you see the spontaneous outpouring of school board support for HB1, remember where it came from and more importantly who paid for it. It's just another example of our tax dollars in action.
5 comments:
Ohio's Executive Assistant for Education Policy appears to assume school district board members do not use high school civics skills (evaluating propganda, credibility, opportunity costs, etc.) to evaluate proposed board resolutions.
Electing such a board member would be a death wish for public education! For comparison, here's a relevant question posed in 2007 to school board candidates in one Ohio district:
Question: ... Before considering such a resolution will you ensure the entire board is fully informed in a manner that leverages Ohio's Social Studies Academic Content Standards and sets an example for the district's students?
Answer (Candidate 1): Yes. ...
Answer (Candidate 2): Before a Board adopts any resolution with regard to school funding, it must carefully study the proposal as to how funding would be provided. I would work to ensure the Board has the necessary information to make an informed decision.
Answer (Candidate 3): It is clearly the responsibility of the individual board member, as well as the collective group, to be well informed of the issues that come before the board. Prior to making any resolution I would encourage all members to be informed and share sources of credible information. The students of our district should expect our board to lead as an informed board of governance. The board is accountable to providing a quality balanced education that insures our students will become productive contributing citizens of our community and country.
I recently had a conversation with a local school board member and was surprised that she didn't seem to know much (if anything) about HB1. I was surprised, thinking how much the policies in the bill might affect a small district like ours. I also asked her what she thought about the new credit flexibility options. She had never heard of it.
The whole conversation left me scratching my head and wondering how policy actually trickles down to local districts. Is there some formal system in place? Or is there a policy fairy that delivers it on the day it's required to be implemented? Or, as Colleens post seems to demonstrate, do districts only learn about policies through propaganda campaigns?
Carol Jean, great question:
Is there some formal system in place? Or is there a policy fairy that delivers it on the day it's required to be implemented?Many local school boards rely on OSBA (Ohio School Board Association) for legislative updates. OSBA may have positions that do not align with the board or local community.
My personal opinion - the State Board of Education does little to communicate with local boards or solicit feedback from local board members, instead we (the SBE) rely on the department to survey the education associations and superintendents.
You are correct - there is a huge communications gap between the state education policy makers and local boards.
Last year Colleen introduced a bill in the house to require board meetings of the State Board of Education be available online (it did not make it to the floor).
Currently the SBE is virtually invisible on the ODE website. Hopefully a legislator will move her idea into a bill this year.
Or we can wait for the policy fairy, maybe she can bring the budget fairy with her to fix the huge budget deficit as well.
Apparently Bert Wiser--Accountability Director for e-Cot, formerly with Worthington and Columbus Schools--didn't get the memo. He has a good editorial in today's Dispatch questioning the replacement of the OGT by ACT.
I will have to let my state reps know I disagree with the local school board.
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