How About "Get Real Ohio"?

What a week! I’m so exhausted I think I’ll sleep all day Sunday. I went to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Wednesday for an Ohio School Boards legislative update. This has been scheduled for months. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Governor Strickland decided to have his State of the State address the same day this was scheduled. He hit on most of the issues near and dear to educators. Charter schools and vouchers being two biggies. Of course funding was much anticipated and really a let down when it was over. Cuyahoga Falls City School District doesn’t benefit at all. But the one that nobody is talking about is the Ohio Graduation Test and what it will do to kids that think they’re college bound. Passing the OGT to receive a diploma is going to shut a lot of people out of scholarships and more importantly certain colleges. I’m particularly talking about athletes. If the requirements are high school diploma or equivalent they can get a GED and still apply. But the schools that require a high school diploma only will be losing out on a lot of athletic talent. No more will kids be able to slide by in high school and go to college because of athletic ability. Now those college slots and scholarships will go to kids who must pass the OGT and earn a diploma according to the criteria set by the Ohio State Board of Education. Pretty sad that they think that all kids need a set standard of education to succeed in life. The only time the date of the start of the Civil War was important in my adult life was when I was in a room full of old ladies in a beauty shop showing off my arm chair Jeopardy skills.
But such is life. We allow these people to spend our tax money on testing companies and printing companies and consultants and data analyzers and the list goes on and on. All for a system that does not and cannot work. People do not want to deal with reality. The reality is everyone cannot and will not pass the OGT. You set these kids even farther behind by denying them something that was at least barely attainable before. On the other hand it improves the chances for smart poor kids to get into college.
The one good part of Stricklands’ speech was the charter school restrictions. I don’t agree with canceling vouchers in all but Cleveland schools. I think vouchers should be left intact everywhere. They are generally used at private parochial schools and I believe they promote competition. I also feel that if your local public school is failing your child, you should have the right to take your child and your tax dollar elsewhere. Failing charters are another story. With so many stories lately of charter school operators running off with hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to other states. Not to mention the operators that stay here and dole out our tax money to our legislators in the form of campaign contributions, so these same legislators will pass legislation allowing the charter school operators to profit from our tax money. It’s a vicious cycle. And did I mention that most of them are failing or have closed because of educational and financial failures? Charter schools have succeeded in other states but Ohio’s system of charters is a failure thanks to legislators (they set the rules) pimping their votes out to the highest bidders (David Brennan, charter school Don) instead of putting Ohio’s children first.
I left the Ohio State House feeling invigorated, powerful, arrogant and strangely unclean. You go in feeling like you can change the world and you leave realizing that unless you become some special interest groups’ political whore, you’ll change nothing. It all goes back to the back scratching I so often talk about. The lobbyists dig deep in their pockets at campaign time especially but really throughout the term of the “elected”. In return the elected dig deep in their murky bag of amendments and throw them into seemingly reasonable legislation. It’s an unspoken rule that an aye vote is attached to the amendment. One of those things they teach in “How to Screw the Taxpayer 101”. I took the longest, hottest shower of my life when I got home and felt much better.
I guess I should mention that it looks like our CEO is staying for now. I’m surprised Hudson didn’t want him. He’s a financial wizard who knows school funding inside and out. I thought he would be a perfect fit. Oh well, their loss and Revere is still looking. After applying at two different places in five months I have to wonder if the handwriting is on the wall. And all this after getting a new contract and a raise. And this business about being “asked” to apply at these jobs is starting to get to me. If you don’t network you don’t get “asked”. They ask because you ask.
Friday night was Roberts Middle School’s all night party. I went at midnight and stayed ‘til about 3 AM. Middle school girls are hyper and high pitched and middle school boys are aggressive and mean. I dread the day I am the one who has to actually stay all night!