Today the Dayton Daily News ran an editorial criticizing the makeup off Gov. Strickland’s Ohio School Funding Advisory Council. The Council’s purpose is to develop recommendations for improving the state’s school funding model. The article laments that key players from Dayton are not represented on the panel, and names Fordham’s vice president of programs and policy Terry Ryan among those whose voices are sorely missed.
In a previous Ohio Education Gadfly post, Emmy pointed out the strange timing of the Funding Council, as its recommendations are due December 1, 2010, four weeks after the gubernatorial election. “If Kasich prevails, it seems unlikely that he’ll heed the advice of a panel convened by the previous administration to improve its flagship policy initiative…There is reason to believe that Governor Strickland won’t embrace the panel’s recommendations either, especially if they call for more resources to be poured into the system.” The Council looks to be more about politics than policy and this is unfortunate as Ohio is facing some serious fiscal challenges that need less politics and more problem-solving to have any chance at being dealt with successfully.