Strickland Aims To Reform State Education
NBC 4
Strickland has set in motion a plan to change classroom environments, find qualified teachers and revise mandatory achievement tests.
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Governor Ted Strickland has set in motion a plan to change classroom environments, find qualified teachers and revise mandatory achievement tests—and it’s all meant to transition Ohio’s students into the 21st Century.
NBC 4’s Tacoma Newsome BREAKS DOWN the reform proposal Thursday.
Strickland’s Education Policy Adviser John Stanford, State Superintendent Deb Delisle and Tax Commissioner Rich Levin held a news conference Thursday to talk about the plan.
Some of the bigger goals include:
- Creating 21st century learning environments.
- Holding districts accountable for spending.
- All-day kindergarten classes.
- Finding the retaining high-quality educators.
- Expanding learning opportunities.
- Measuring Ohio students against the World -Effective funding system.
Under this reform:
- The student would be the center of the education universe; currently education is “adult-focused.“
- Core subjects would run deep rather than broad: Students will know a lot about a little instead of a little about a lot.
- There will be coaching and mentoring for teachers.
- There would be a registered nurse in each district and a licensed practice nurse in each school.
- There would be 20 more learning days to the learning year.
- Establish Teach Ohio to encourage Ohioans to become teachers
- All students would take the ACT (at no cost), end-of-course exams and complete a senior thesis or project.
Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for the latest information in this developing story.
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Reader Reactions
I laughed at the “Holding districts accountable for spending”. That’ll be a first! And what exactly is a 21st century learning environment? Some of our best and brightest came from a 1940’s learning environment. Oh but wait, that was back in the days when there was discipline in our schools, instead of thugs running rampant. Another outlet is stating that Ohio’s charter schools will be a big loser in this revamping. That’s a damned shame. Charter schools are the only ones worth sending kids to right now, at least here in Columbus. The Columbus Public system is a joke. No, it worse, there is much criminal activity in our schools that no one does anything about. A pathetic, disgusting mess.
He has SOME good ideas, but who is going to pay for it all. The answer is working class people. Also, I do not agree with the ‘longer school year’ or the ‘all day kindergarten’ ideas. It boils down to the Democrats saying they can raise (or rather brainwash) your kids better than you can. Finally, his master plan already uses anticipated “stimulus” money for general budget balancing. The purpose of that money will be to stimulate the economy, not make the ends meet of an existing budget. Unacceptable!
I like most of Strickland’s ideas except adding 20 more days to the school year. The reason I am against this is some schools are not air conditioned and trying to teach 24 kids on the third floor on a 90 degree day is difficult. Teachers already deal with the heat when we start in August and don’t get out until the second week in June. Now imagine teaching through most of July in that heat. Or for that matter being 6 or 7 years old learning to read, while sweat pours down your face onto your book and your fingers stick to each page as you turn it. Let’s let the kids have some time to be kids.
to Lou & The Bav-
Quick review of the legislative process…. Fixing the unconstitutional funding problem isn’t something the governor can do on his own. This is something the state legislature has to do - pass a bill in the Ohio house & senate, and send it to Strickland’s desk to sign into law.
If you’d like to see this happen, contact your state legislators and let them know this is important to you and you’ll hold them accountable next election if they don’t get it done.
Lou, I have to agree with you. Kind of makes you wonder whose head is up where!
Of course, you can always tell when Strickland is lying, his lips move!
Why doesn’t the governor fix the unconstitutional way our schools are being funded? He ran on that promise but he has yet to address it. My taxes are already high enough without another levy in May. The lottery was voted in to assist in school funding but it isn’t being used to it’s full potential. Come on Governor, you promised!
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