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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > May > 03 > Entry
Jon Husted: Vote yes for Dayton schools
Jon Husted
A lot of people within Dayton Public Schools probably thought it would be a cold day in hell before House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, endorsed the Dayton school levy.
If that’s true then Satan’s wearing snow pants today.
I just got off the phone with Husted, who said after conversations with school board President Yvonne Isaacs and Fordham Foundation Vice President Terry Ryan he has decided to endorse the 15.17-mill levy on Tuesday’s ballot.
In return, Isaacs has agreed Dayton schools will work more closely with charter and private schools.
Husted said Isaacs agreed to a series of meetings at which leaders of district, private and charter schools could discuss their common issues, including facilities, transportation, academic quality and student head count.
“I think it’s a chance to take the financial issues off the table and begin to talk about quality issues and improved relations,” he said.
This is a big turnaround from Husted, who early in the levy campaign was critical of the district, then suggested he might be supportive if the district were more cooperative with charter schools.
That prompted the school board to defend its dealings with charters. But as recently as last week, Husted was criticizing Superintendent Percy Mack’s comments about charter schools.
Apparently, that’s all water under the bridge now. Husted said charter and private school supporters should get behind the levy.
“Given the commitment I just got from the president of Dayton school board to work with the charters and private schools in Dayton to build better overall academic environment for chidlren no matter what schools they attend, we can improve all schools in Dayton,” Husted said.
This is a huge boost to the levy efforts to have perhaps the highest profile school choice supporter backing the levy. What are your thoughts about these developments?
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite Posts
Comments
By Eric
May 8, 2007 6:19 AM | Link to this
Lou: And what makes it more more difficult to educate the poor? If they aren’t naturally slow, then it must come from the environment, right? So who controls that child’s environment outside your class room? THE PARENTS! You are having problems with these poverty kids because everything you teach them goes to the toilet when they get home.By lou
May 6, 2007 9:27 PM | Link to this
Eric, I never saud that the poor cannot learn. It just takes more. Do you teach? Have you ever tried to teach a kid about tides who has never seen the ocean? have you tries to teach them about mountains they have never seen? I do it everyday. Yes I can and do teach them but it is more difficult. And Yes Eric, I have more good parents than I have bad. And I do not ever blame the student for what their parent does, nor do I teach down to them.By David
May 6, 2007 7:15 AM | Link to this
I heard Husted interviewed by Bill Cunningham on WLW700 one afternoon this week. He was so arrogant and proud when he declared that “we” stripped the vouchers item and the charter schools item out of the bill and sent it to the governor. The Republicans in Ohio’s legislature just don’t get it. They’re playing games with the schools of Ohio and the children’s education. His attitude reminded me of the self-righteousness of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker and others of the religious types who feel their opinions are the only opinions and they have justification to do anything because, well, they can justify it in their minds and their religions. Ohio schools are never going to get more equalized funding from the State despite the Supreme Court’s rulings.By Eric
May 6, 2007 5:16 AM | Link to this
Lou, Now you say you got facts but all you got is stats. No I’m not saying all poverty parents are bad. But the ones that are good are in the minority AND I’d bet real money that their kids are doing good in school. Sure there are bad parents in the burbs as well in the minority. In fact I bet there are plenty of hidden bad parents out there. But since they don’t have the financial woes that add exponential stress in the family, it remains hidden. And as far as ignorance goes….I would much rather think that we all start out with equal opportunity as far as intelligence goes rather than say poor kids are simply dense or stupid or slow or harder to educate….whatever you wish to call it. I view that as true ignorance…to blame children instead of adults.By Lou
May 4, 2007 7:35 PM | Link to this
Eric, have you looked at test results across the state and other states? poverty makes a difference across the board, no matter what district. The state breaks it down with race, economically disadvantaged, and so on. I don’t care what district you look at the economically disadvantage are lower. I know many middle class parents that do nothing but throw money at their kids, they don’t spend much time with them either. Don’t say all parents of poverty are bad, I see many everyday that do everything they can to help their children do better than they did. Look at the facts, the score that show poor kids don’t do well is right their in print. You are making the statemant that all people of poverty are bad paents is ignorant.By Grandmother
May 4, 2007 7:19 PM | Link to this
I find it troubling that a teacher who works for Dayton Schools speaks about it in such a negative way. I suspect he or she will want a pay raise which will have to be paid for with levy funds. I also find it interesting that Teacher is supportive of the levy in the district where he or she lives and is hopeful that it passes. If Dayton schools are so terrible why doesn’t this teacher teach in Fairborn? If the levy fails and massive cuts are made in the teaching ranks, this person should volunteer to quit. How can you teach children effectively if you have such a negative opinion about the school district for which you work?By Karla Hollencamp
May 4, 2007 11:10 AM | Link to this
Cooperation between local, county, regional,state and the federal government is absolutely essential to achieve the goal of educating all of Dayton’s students. Federal programs are a trade off for every service of the City of Dayton; they fill gaps in critical areas while they also created “unfunded mandates.” Working with all levels of government toward a well defined goal is top priority. Neighborhood schools work best when they are supported at all these levels. Students are entitled to successful, safe and consistent schools close to where they live. If transportation,food, clothing, health and family issues are dealt with by social services, there is no reason a child anywhere in the city can not receive a quality education. Too much money is spent on school administration and not enough on student services.By Eric
May 4, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this
Teacher: I would be VERY wary of federal involvement in our education process. I would agrue that federal involvement might breach the 1st Amendment due to looking at the source of educational requirements. Look at what happened with the NCLB Act. Our schools changed their policies to meet federal govenrment requirements to get a piece of the funding. No, I don’t like the idea of the federa lgovernment controlling what is learned in school. At the very best, text books would change every 4-10 years with focus on partisan spins from either side. At worst, we get complete govenrment propaganda taught like we saw in communist-based countries. No it should remain a state issue only. Now what the state needs to do is to find where the state should focus their educational efforts. Should it be liberal arts? Science and math? This should be done with the consultation of the state’s departments of commerce (what does state businesses need) and the department of education (how can we meet that without limiting other areas of study). What I am getting sick of is this idea that education and business don’t mix. If you focus on education, then we will have a group of nicely trained Ohioans that will bail out of the state to land a good paying job elsewhere. We got to put the two together. Free education for personal growth sounds great but is unrealistic. It’s an ideal that can not happen without negative results (mass exodus).By Teacher
May 4, 2007 9:18 AM | Link to this
To Caroline, I should have clarified what I was saying. What I meant is that the government should focus our funds towards more of our education. A tiny amount of our national government and state government funds goes towards schools. If they want better schools they should take what they have with tax payers dollars now and put it more towards education. I actually live in Fairborn and will gladly pay for the Fairborn School Levy when it crosses fingers passes. It’s not that I don’t want to give to my schools— it’s that I am disgusted on how DPS has wrecklessly spent money in the district and it wasn’t questioned by government or other top important figures earlier. Again, I hope Strickland is going put his focus towards education like he said. At this point, we really need the focus here on our schools and I think Strickland gets that.By Caroline
May 4, 2007 8:16 AM | Link to this
To Teacher: You say that the “government” should pay for schools, but don’t you realize that those government funds come from the taxpayers? There is no way getting around it, if you want nice schools, then you have to pay for them. If you want poor schools, live in a district that won’t pay for the taxes to have good schools.By Eric
May 4, 2007 6:10 AM | Link to this
Stan, I heard Mack talk about that also. That poor kids are much harder to education. I don’t believe that it is and you shouldn’t either. In fact, it’s quite disheartening to hear this coming out of a a superintendent. To believe that is to also believe in a caste system. You are born into your social class and you are different than any other person. BULL! We all know what the reason is but are too afraid to admit it. It’s not that these kids are different than their peers for the most part….it’s because their parents are crap. Sure they don’t lock them up in closets but they have no problem plopping them infront of a TV so they don’t have to deal with them. See the similarity? It’s the PARENTING!!!!! There is no poverty disease that makes kids “special”. It’s poverty parents that are just bad at parenting because they let their situation get the best of them and it shows in their parenting. Are you trying to say that their is some magical and expensive way for kids to gain education and well-being from the school when the parents don’t do their job? No, no amount of money given to the schools will help those kids. Sounds callous but only by changing the parents, do you remotely have a chance at that. The reason why Dayton is continuously in the crapper with education is because the leadership refuses to accept this very basic premise.By sharon
May 3, 2007 9:50 PM | Link to this
I heard an interesting proposal today. Why doesn’t the board finish building the new schools so the students can go to a school near their home and at the same time eliminate a large portion of the busing expense. Maybe it’s time for Dayton to stop trying to be everything to everybody and do what other school districts do. Have school boundaries drawn up and that is where they go to school. Parents no longer send their kids to a school for the magnet theme (since they don’t exist anymore)but choose the school because it is where they went or they move to another area because they are mad at someone in a former school.By Teacher
May 3, 2007 9:06 PM | Link to this
To vote NO, I am a teacher who does not support this levy. I find it hard to swallow. Yet… what I do support is what is best for our children. Do I think this levy is right? No. Do I think something needs to be done for our school system though? Yes… for our students and for a better education. Yet that takes investment and I’m hoping with all of my heart that Strickland will jump on this issue that plagues a lot of schools in Ohio. It shouldn’t have to be burdened mostly on the people’s shoulders. The government should be helping out and sadly their focuses tend to be elsewhere than that of the wellbeing of our children’s education. As for the cuts— well let’s just say that we are still rather upset knowing that the admin got a nice chunk of a pay raise… and then we were told there wasn’t any money. Go figure.By Steve
May 3, 2007 8:34 PM | Link to this
I think a lot of those that will vote for the levy are renters - what they don’t realize is that what they pay in rent (if they pay rent) is going to go WAY up!By Stan
May 3, 2007 7:00 PM | Link to this
It would be better if Rep. Husted would take the lead on passing a State law to fix the unconstitutional reliance on property taxes that fund schools. We shouldn’t pit kids against senior citizens with fixed incomes. However Dayton has a high concentration of kids in poverty who lack the advantages of Oakwood kids. Like it or not, it costs more to educate them. Plus there are lots of special needs kids who need a lot. Education is the only way out. If we don’t pay now we pay later with an unproductive work force and a lot of prison costs. Voting against school levies is a losing strategy.By Rick
May 3, 2007 6:22 PM | Link to this
Craig, boy, you really hate Republicans! A lot of people, including many Republicans, believe that public education will not be reformed unless and until it is faced with serious competition. I believe that is true and I believe that the history of the Dayton Public Schools shows that. After Charter schools came in they did something they kept saying they wanted to do but somehow were not able: get rid of busing. Second, look how, at long last, the DPS are improving. That is because they know if they don’t they will lose even more students.By Chris
May 3, 2007 5:54 PM | Link to this
How insulting! Let him pay this ridiculous tax. The COD schools have lost thousands of students but want to maintain the same number of personnel and infrastructure. What a joke.By vote No
May 3, 2007 2:42 PM | Link to this
Is it just me or are the majority of the people who are saying “Vote Yes” are either A.) Renters, B.) Work for the school system or C.) Do not live in the city???By Eric
May 3, 2007 1:24 PM | Link to this
HA! Spoken like a true arm-chair politician. I think we need a levy on all politician homes of 50 mil. Since Husted doesn’t live in Dayton, what right does he have advising how much we are to be taxed?! I’m sorry but if you are not going to get hit in the wallet over this, then you have no right to comment. Dayton has the highest income tax of the area and the second highest property tax for schools at 70.85 mil only beat by Oakwood (which can actually back-up that their money is doing it’s job).By craig fourman
May 3, 2007 1:01 PM | Link to this
Husted and other Republicans pretend to support local schools but their actions speak louder than their words. Their consistently bad lawmaking combined with a disdain for public education reveal their elitist intentions. This is not about education, its about ideology and truly, our children’s future is at stake. If Husted wants to show his real life concern for public education, then let him get off his ideological butt and reform public school funding instead of supporting alteratives to an edcucational system he continues to sabotage.By Skeptic
May 3, 2007 12:54 PM | Link to this
I’m not sure what anyone really gains by this, other than political posturing. Both sides bend but offer nothing new. Husted doesn’t even live in the City, but is obviously influential in the statehouse. His endorsement will have little if any impact on the levy, but the Board needs him on their side in the long run. Meanwhile, Husted gets to say he is fighting for the charters AND helping public schools. None of this changes the problems with the state funding system. Just one example - why are public schools still responsible for charter school transportation?? THAT is the kind of thing I hope they put on the table during these proposed discussions.