Ohio Burdens Public School Districts with Huge Unfunded Voucher Mandate at the Expense of Public School Students
The Plain Dealer‘s education reporter, Patrick O’Donnell recently published an important article piecing together a mass of the complicated reasons for this school year’s explosive growth in the number of Ohio students qualifying for private school tuition vouchers at public expense. Public school districts across Ohio are watching their budgets unexpectedly collapse as more and more students carry away state and local tax dollars in vouchers for religious education.
Before examining O’Donnell’s explication of the overly complicated—maybe intentionally convoluted—mechanics of the qualification process, however, one must start with what O’Donnell reports is Ohio State Senator Matt Huffman’s attitude toward public schools and public school teachers. O’Donnell quotes Huffman blaming public schools for failing to improve: “State Sen. Matt Huffman, one of the strongest supporters of vouchers in Ohio, said some of the rules are subtle and have changed a few times. But districts should have known, he said, and should be blaming themselves for not improving their schools.”
Huffman is a member of the Ohio Senate Education Committee. Back in September, when the latest Ohio school district report cards came out, this blog quoted other members of the Ohio Senate Education Committee who openly disdain public schoolteachers. One senator repeatedly asked: “How much time should we give those who drove the bus into the ditch to get it out?” Another mused, “I think its maybe the wrong people are running the show and we need to try something different.”
At the time, I wondered how these guys can go on clinging to the old idea that teachers can fix social inequality merely by working harder. Maybe they imagine that if we were merely to CONTINUE READING: Ohio Burdens Public School Districts with Huge Unfunded Voucher Mandate at the Expense of Public School Students | janresseger
