Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Cars and Parts Swap Meet
Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > October > 07
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Would DECA really have closed?
Last week, Ohio House speaker Jon Husted was in for an endorsement interview with the DDN editorial board in his race for the Ohio Senate against Centerville school board member John Doll. (Husted earned the paper’s endorsement.)
In the course of the conversation, Husted used the Dayton Early College Academy as an example. Husted said he pushed to change Ohio law to allow DECA to convert more easily to a charter school and if he hadn’t done so, the high scoring high school would have closed.
You may recall that the University of Dayton, which ran DECA in conjunction with Dayton schools, wanted an exemption from the district’s teacher contract when the district moved to lay off staff, including 200 teachers, in 2007. The school wanted its staff kept outside the seniority rules for layoff. Otherwise the district’s cuts would have caused a chunk of the school’s teachers to be cut loose, replaced by displaced teachers from other city high schools.
Instead, DECA dissolved its contract to operate under the city school district’s direct control and became a charter school. The only problem was Ohio had a cap on charter schools that would not allow even one new school to open. Husted pushed through the change that allowed DECA in under the cap.
But would the school have actually closed without Hustead help?
Perhaps. But maybe not. There was another choice. The school could have decided to live with the union rules and the layoffs and make the best of it. To be clear, DECA school leaders have said they were not willing to make that compromise. They said at the time (and according to Husted, they still maintain) the school would be ruined without its hand-picked teaching staff and that it would have closed if not for the option to go charter.
But would the school have really pulled the trigger and shut down if it had to stay in the district and play by the union rules? Would school leaders really have shut its doors and pointed its kids back to the city high schools many of them fled? Or would the school have made the best of a bad situation and given it a go?
I suppose this is one of those “what if” questions we will never know the answer to for certain.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
