Hey parents: They don’t call it “college advantage” for nothing
The end of our parental education journey is drawing near: Less than a year from now, both of our children will be looking at college graduation.
The end of our parental education journey is drawing near: Less than a year from now, both of our children will be looking at college graduation.
Budget conference committee continues
It’s been a very busy budget season in Ohio.
One purpose of charter schools is to serve as laboratories of innovation for public education—a deliberate effort to do things differently than the long-entrenched traditional district model.
As this year’s budget process races to the finish line, state lawmakers are the midst of making decisions about what stays and what goes. The current, Senate-passed version of the budget bill has dozens of provisions that would move K–12 education in the right direction.
Despite serving tens of thousands of students each year—most of whom are low-income—Ohio has a regrettable track record of underfunding its public charter schools.
In its biennial budget plan for FYs 2024–25, the Senate—as did the House—proposed a hefty increase in K–12 education spending.
Since the 1980s, education reform efforts have sought to shake up the stodgy, traditional landscape of public schooling in the United States. One way to do that is to start schools from scratch that can introduce innovative new education models and push traditional systems to improve.
To use football parlance, education reform often feels like three yards and a cloud of dust. Yet sometimes the gains are bigger—a long forward pass—and that’s what the Ohio Senate’s final budget bill, which passed the chamber yesterday, would amount to. These are the key proposals in their game plan.
NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
Today, the Ohio Senate unveiled its version of the biennial state budget (Substitute House Bill 33). Among the K-12 education highlights from the upper chamber’s bill include: Increasing accountability for the state education agency to rigorously implement education laws through much-needed governance reforms;
One of the more variable aspects of charter school operation around the country is the system by which schools are authorized and managed.
NOTE: This piece was originally published by RealClear Education.
Following Florida’s lead, about twenty states, including Ohio, have enacted laws that require schools to retain third gra
Today, Ohio Excels and the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC) released a study on the academic impact of retaining students under Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee and providing them with extra support.
By now, it’s no secret that the pandemic and schools’ pivot to remote learning was a disaster for most students.
NOTE: This piece was originally published in the Dayton Daily News.
With the budget bill speeding to the finish line, the Statehouse rumor mill is cranking into high gear. Among the rumblings is an effort by a few charter advocates to weaken the state’s sponsor evaluation system.
One more story from National Charter Schools Week
Another Charter Schools Week is in the books
For more than two decades, the charter school movement has aimed to provide parents with more public-school options, empower educators to launch innovative schools, and boost student achievement. This report looks at the progress Ohio is making toward achieving these ambitious goals. It includes an overview of the landmark reforms that state lawmakers enacted in 2015 to strengthen accountability for charter school performance, as well as the improvements the sector has made since then. The report also discusses the large funding disparities that public charter schools in Ohio still face, and how legislators can work to bridge those gaps.
Earlier this week, the Ohio House of Representatives passed its version of the state budget bill for FYs 2024 and 2025. The House legislation follows up on Governor DeWine’s budget introduced in February. Included in this massive legislation are hundreds of provisions affecting K–12 education. How did the lower chamber do?