Budget bill released
Legislative language for the state budget was released on Monday as House Bill 166 (fiscal analysis). Among its 1810 pages, the budget provides lottery funding of $30 million per year for the Quality Community School Support initiative. Through the initiative, a charter school designated as a “Community School of Quality” will receive an additional $1,750 for every economically disadvantaged student it serves and an extra $1,000 for other students.
New school funding plan proposed
A school funding workgroup, led by Representatives Bob Cupp and John Patterson, released a new “Ohio Fair School Funding” plan on Monday. In their press conference, Cupp and Patterson gave an overview of the plan and stated that it will fix how Ohio funds its public schools. There were few details on charter funding changes, but the plan does call for charters to be funded directly by the state rather than through district deductions. You can access the report and other resources on the plan’s website.
Graduates of top charter networks more likely to complete college
New data compiled by Richard Whitmire show that low-income students who graduate from many of America’s largest charter networks go on to graduate from college at two to four times the national average for their peers (which is 11 percent). Whitmire finds encouraging data from KIPP in particular: As of 2017, KIPP’s national college completion rate within six years is 36 percent for all students who completed eighth grade at a KIPP school, and 45 percent for those who graduated from a KIPP high school. You can read more about his findings in his upcoming book, The B.A. Breakthrough.
New charter school opening in Marion
Marion Preparatory Academy, a K-6 charter school that will offer an advanced curriculum for students, is expected to open in September after experiencing delays this past year. It will be housed in the former Marion Catholic High School building and plans to offer extended school days, additional education programs, quality early learning programming, and smaller class sizes.
Legislative update
This was another busy week in the legislature. In the House Education committee, State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria offered testimony on a proposal for Ohio’s high school graduation requirements. DeMaria’s testimony and PowerPoint for the March 26 meeting can be found here. The Senate Education committee heard sponsor testimony on two bills. Senators Andrew Brenner and Peggy Lehner presented testimony on Senate Bill 102 related to dyslexia screening, and Senator Nathan Manning offered testimony on Senate Bill 110 dealing with academic distress commissions. You can find the Senate testimony here.
School Performance Institute workshop
Are you a school leader interested in helping your team to build their capacity to lead and implement change? Bring your team and check out the School Performance Institute’s upcoming workshop on April 12th. You’ll have an opportunity to visit a high-performing elementary charter school during a school day (to observe how the school has been purposefully designed to get results in a high-poverty context using proven methods) and discuss concrete ways to apply these ideas in your own school. You can register here, if interested, or contact John A. Dues for more information.
