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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > February > 10
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Carl Wick: What does Strickland want?
Carl Wick
If you read today’s paper, you saw that members of the Ohio Board of Education aren’t wild about Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to cut their clout dramatically by advocating for an appointed directorship to oversee K-12 education in Ohio.
One of those board members, Carl Wick, sent me some thoughtful comments on the issue, but most of them did not make it into the story for the paper. Still, I thought you might like to hear more of what he had to say, so here is his statement on Strickland’s move:
“It seems to me that Governor Strickland’s proposal simply adds another level of bureaucracy to Ohio K-12 public education. While (Board President Jennifer) Sheets points out that it will insolate K-12 education issues and debate from the public, it simply adds another layer to the overall organization. This is not good public organization (private too) conventional wisdom sense.
We now have a state board of education directly reporting to the people of Ohio. The new proposal will have a director reporting to the governor with the board of education and state superintendent reporting to the director. I do not understand how another level of bureaucracy adds to better K-12 education.
What’s different from the recent changed Board of Regents model of governance?
Ohio public education is spread throughout over hundreds of public school districts. All are governed by a local board of education, mostly elected with some appointed. The state of Ohio model of governance reflects this model.
Since most of Ohio children from age 5 through 18 attend public schools (about 1.8-million with another 300,000 attending private schools and also some having dropped out) the current state board of education public forum model allows, if they choose to, any and all to engage in the debate as well as any and all knowing exactly how public policy is determined. The proposed Gov. Strickland director of education model will not allow public debate nor overall exposure for public scrutiny.
While we have more road to travel to make Ohio public education more effective for all students, we have progressed in the last five years to being ranked seventh in the nation. This is pretty good under the current governance model. How will the new governance make this even better?
Other points, or at least questions:
—Why is Governor Strickland doing this knowing that there has been good improvement in the past few years in Ohio public education?
—What is it that he wants to change?
—Is he anti-school choice? Is he frustrated for not being able to get at community schools to close them out?
—Does he want to dismantle No Child Left Behind which he’s been critical of? NCLB has been successfully implemented in Ohio and can be pointed to for some of the recent success for Ohio public education?
—Does he not like recent Ohio Board of Education decisions?
—While Gov. Strickland has met with our board president, he has not sought to meet with or engage with the state board of education. A meeting had been set up with him only for him to cancel the meeting a few days before scheduled. The meeting was never re-scheduled. The previous governor met with the state board on many occasions.”
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