Ohio education policymakers seem to have a split personality when it comes to what they say they care about and what they fund. The frequency and impact of this disconnect make it all the more frightening.????????
This Jekyll-and-Hyde contrast was evident today when education experts gathered ????in Dayton to discuss the state of the state's schools at a discussion sponsored by the Ohio Grantmakers Forum (our Terry Ryan was a panelist).
Tom Lasley, dean of the School of Education and Allied Professions at the University of Dayton, pointed out that Ohio now requires all-day kindergarten, yet the same piece of legislation which mandated that devastated early learning funds that help prepare children for school. ????Meanwhile Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Kurt Stanic pointed out that children are entering Dayton schools and they're already two years behind.
Lasley complained equally about the other end of the K-12 continuum - the state decimated funding for its nine early college academies that have produced good results for inner city high schoolers. ????It's the same with the "Seniors to Sophomores" program in which high school students could earn college credit, cut ????a year out of college, and save thousands in tuition and room-and-board money. ????Despite Ohio's commitment to get 270,000 more people through our colleges and universities, "Seniors to Sophomores" was abandoned as well.
Notice a trend here?
While Ohio's leaders talk a lot about wanting to implement certain reforms, when the bloody budget axe comes out, as it has repeatedly, many promising programs that are linked to the state's ultimate education goals get their heads lopped off.
