Teacher to Ohio Gov. Kasich: ‘You are in the dark about life in the classroom’
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s stewardship of the public schools in his state has not been without problems. During his tenure, issues facing public schools in Ohio have included the growth of a charter school sector as scandal-ridden as any in the country, funding cuts for traditional public schools while charter schools and voucher programs got more state money, a problem-plagued teacher evaluation system and the troubled administration of a new Common Core test.
Recently it came to light that the governor had buried in his 3,512-page fiscal 2018-2019 budget proposal a mandate that all new teachers applying for a license — and all working teachers applying for license renewal in Ohio — get some “on-site work experience with a local business or chamber of commerce.”
Why? Ryan Burgess, director of Kasich’s Office of Workforce Transformation, told reporters that it would help teachers get a better idea for what jobs are available to students and what skills employers need.
Well, Julie Rine is one teacher who begs to differ. She wrote and sent a letter to the governor that appeared on Plunderbund and that she gave me permission to publish. Rine has been teaching in Ohio for more than 20 years. She is now in the Minerva Local School District, teaching Honors English I, Honors English II, Honors American Literature and English III at Minerva High School. She was born in Ohio, earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and a master’s degree at Marygrove College in Michigan.
Here is her strong letter to Kasich:
Dear Governor Kasich,Your proposal in the budget to require teachers to complete an “on-site work experience” with a local business as a condition of renewing our teaching licenses is baffling. Even the state legislators in your own party didn’t seem to see the value in it, and have indicated that they most likely will not support it. What exactly did you hope to accomplish by our spending time observing or even participating in a field outside of education? Despite a lot of press coverage, we were given few details about the thinking behind this mind-boggling mandate,Teacher to Ohio Gov. Kasich: ‘You are in the dark about life in the classroom’ - The Washington Post: