On August 11, I was asked to represent Ohio at a competition held in Washington, DC by the Thomas Fordham Foundation to determine which of five states (Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio) had enacted the most significant education reforms in 2011. Each state was given six minutes to present their case followed by questions from a panel. Below are excerpts from my presentation.
Ohio is certainly not a newcomer to education reform…. We have been out in front of school choice for some time with over 350 charter schools and one of the nation’s largest voucher programs. At the same time Ohio provides clear evidence that school choice alone does not equate to any significant improvement in school quality. While there has been considerable attention in Ohio to the creation and governance of charter schools, it is becoming increasing clear that until quality becomes the driving factor throughout our system that we run the risk of merely making change for change’s sake.
Current reform efforts in Ohio are being redirected to focus on quality. Regardless of the “setting”, student learning must be our primary focus. Underperforming schools and/or teachers will not be tolerated. The achievement gap must be bridged but not at the expense of further watering down curriculum or lowering expectations. College remediation rates of 50% or higher are simply unacceptable. All children must become proficient in reading and basic math before they ever leave the 3rd grade.
Our first crack at addressing some of these issues was reflected in the biennial budget process just completed in June. Ohio’s biennial budget is not merely a financial document but is also the primary policy document for the Governor. Gov. Kasich is a very reformed minded leader and even while facing an $8 billion deficit, was not hesitant about including numerous education reforms in the budget. While traditionally the budget is the first order of business in a new GA, Ohio’s collective bargaining reform bill SB 5, was dropped weeks ahead of the budget. While SB 5 went far beyond education reform, the bill did away with the use of “last in, first out” policies to determine teacher layoffs and replaced seniority pay with a performance driven evaluation and performance system.
Enacting education reform via the legislative process is not easy. Reforms can be easily sabotaged by political posturing. For example it is really interesting how the Democrats in Illinois unanimously supported legislation very similar to what they unanimously opposed in Ohio.
Substantial reform also requires a level of knowledge about an issue that is unrealistic to expect in a diverse legislative body. Once a bill leaves a sponsors hand it will be worked and reworked at numerous stages of the legislative process which makes careful reform work very difficult to accomplish. As the chairman of the Senate education committee and a member of the Finance committee I was asked to be the point person for education issues in the budget process. I made a concerted effort to reach out to members of the education community to get valuable input on some of the more technical issues. We also brought some of the leading figures in education reform to Ohio to provide expert testimony on key provisions in the bill.
The process of education reform in Ohio is still very much a work in progress. We certainly did not get everything done in the budget that needs to get done. A referendum on SB 5 looms this fall however some of the more critical pieces of education reform such as developing a teacher evaluation system and ending LIFO were substantially included in the budget. While opportunities for new charter schools to open were created we also took steps to assure that failing schools of any kind would be closed and chronically underperforming sponsors would be unable to open additional schools. The availability of vouchers were greatly expanded but an effort to hold voucher schools more accountable was deleted and will be the subject for future legislation. A new Special Needs scholarship program modeled after Florida’s successful McKay Scholarship has been instituted, allowing up to 13,000 students with special needs to attend schools that can better provide for them. A framework and timeline for teacher evaluation was put in place and teachers are starting to come to the table to help flesh out the details. Ohio has been a strong supporter of the Common Core Standards and the budget provides resources to the Dept of Ed to implement the standards. Teach for America will soon be coming to Ohio for the first time.
Faced with some significant challenges the amount of education reform that has taken place in Ohio over the past six months is truly remarkable however we view it as only the beginning. Efforts are underway to create a more unified education system that better links early childhood, K-12 and post secondary education. Creating quality will be the driving factor behind school choice including in the new realm of technology based innovation. The stars are definitely well aligned for some truly innovative reforms in Ohio and while we may not win today I can assure you we will be hard to beat in the months ahead.