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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > August > 17
Monday, August 17, 2009
Editorial: Ohio should bring Teach for America here
Ohio could be bringing dozens of the smartest college graduates into its most needy schools, but it has taken a pass.
That should change.
Teach for America, which trains top graduating seniors and places them in high-poverty classrooms for two years of Peace Corps-like service, continues to expand. This fall it will be serving six new regions and adding 1,000 teachers to the 6,200 it placed nationwide last year.
But none will be coming to the Buckeye State.
Some say that Ohio doesn’t need programs like Teach for America because the state has more than two dozen colleges with teacher training programs and actually exports new teachers to other states. Moreover, the number of new teachers who are turned out annually in the state surpasses the open teaching jobs, and this is true even when the economy isn’t in the tank.
Still, these facts aren’t acceptable excuses to pass on attracting a nationally respected program here. Many of the grads who go through Teach for America are on their way to successful careers, sometimes in education, sometimes not. Bringing them here gives Ohio a shot at benefiting from their ingenuity and energy, both while they’re teaching and maybe after their commitments are complete.
Consider a couple of examples:
• Mark Feinberg and David Levin founded the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and started their first successful charter school in Houston just after finishing their stints there with Teach for America. KIPP, which has a school in Columbus, is now considered one of the most promising school-reform models and charter school networks in the country.
• Ohio-reared Michelle Rhee is another Teach for America grad. She taught in Baltimore’s city schools and founded the New Teacher Project, another Teach for America-style post-graduate program. Now she’s the widely admired superintendent in Washington, D.C.
Their successors can bring fresh approaches to classrooms here. And who knows — this might be the place where the next generation of new ideas bears fruit.
To get Teach for America here, Ohio needs:
• Changes to its teacher certification rules.
Generally, Teach for America’s teachers majored in something other than education. Ohio needs a process that either speeds program participants through to a quick or temporary certificate or creates an exemption for them.
• Collaboration among school districts.
Teach for America generally requires a commitment to take 100 teachers. That is too many, for instance, for Dayton schools. But districts could make the commitment in partnership. Dayton could participate, say, with Cincinnati and other nearby needy districts.
• Buy-in from unions.
Where unions view Teach for America grads as a threat, their road can be bumpy. But generally the program puts its participants in the highest poverty, lowest achieving schools, which veteran teachers often try to avoid anyway.
• Funding.
To recruit, train and support 100 Teach for America teachers costs about $5 million to $6 million, the organization says. Usually about 70 percent of that cost is raised by the state, school districts and philanthropies where they’re placed. Even in an era of tight budgets, those figures aren’t insurmountable.
This year Teach for America had 35,000 applicants, including 11 percent of all graduating seniors from Ivy League colleges. The program hopes to add three to five more sites per year.
Ohio should be jumping to be on the list.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
Bill Faith: Ohio’s foreclosure crisis isn’t going away soon
Optimism generally is a healthy attitude. But when it comes to Ohio’s foreclosure crisis, believing the worst is over is dangerous — especially for lawmakers who are being lulled into inaction by reports that Ohio has hit bottom.
Despite news in late July that slight dips occurred in foreclosure filings during the first half of 2009 in some metro areas, Ohio still is in a mess of trouble. Consider these myths.
Myth No. 1: The crisis is winding down.
Ohio’s foreclosure numbers have galloped to record levels for each of the past 14 years, so any sudden reduction raises more questions than answers.
Is the leveling off the result of temporary moratoriums adopted earlier in the year by lenders? Is it due to a surge in bankruptcy filings, which halt foreclosure proceedings?
Are the monthly numbers temporarily flat because Ohio is in a trough between foreclosure waves, with readjustable mortgages resetting in the coming months? Is the tiny blip all that can be expected from the Barack Obama plan to help homeowners facing the loss of their homes?
Likely, it’s a combination of all of the above.
Adding to this uncertainty is our unemployment growth — 11.1 percent and rising — which is like gasoline on the foreclosure fire. People without jobs can’t pay their mortgages.
Plus, one in five Ohio borrowers is “under water” in their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their homes are worth. Ohio has seen an additional 6.2 percent decline in home values from March 2008 through March 2009, pushing thousands more toward that fragile status.
Myth No. 2: Regulation is unnecessary. It restricts the marketplace.
Loose regulation of the financial services industry brought the world to its knees. What’s needed now in Ohio is regulation of the foreclosure process.
Not so long ago, the process worked effectively. Today, it’s collapsing under the weight of more than 400,000 foreclosures in the last five years.
The Bush administration’s Hope Now initiative and Obama’s Making Home Affordable plan have had, at best, uneven responses from only a fraction of people in need. Much more has to happen on a larger scale, which is why House Bill 3 deserves immediate action when legislators return this fall.
House Bill 3 would regulate servicers, the real drivers of the foreclosure bus, to give them an incentive to consider loan modifications.
Currently in Ohio, servicers are not regulated. They get their marching orders — and make their profits — from the investor/lender who gives them two options: collect the mortgage payment from the borrower, or foreclose ASAP.
Some homeowners could make their payments and stay in their homes if they weren’t being crushed by late fees or predatory interest rates. If some hefty charges were waived, if they were given a decent interest rate, they could make their payments. Despite good-faith efforts by the governor and the attorney general, new foreclosure starts continue to outpace loan modifications. Ohioans are about 20 percent less likely to receive a modification than the national average.
We must do better.
The continued “net” increase in foreclosures translates to more homes going up for sale and lower real-estate values. That vicious cycle has to stop.
HB 3 would also charge a filing fee to the lender, the proceeds of which will go back into communities for prevention counseling and foreclosure mitigation efforts. And it would call for a moratorium for qualified homeowners to enable them to pursue assistance under the new Obama plan.
Myth No. 3: I pay my mortgage on time; foreclosures don’t affect me.
The Center for Responsible Lending analyzed the most recent numbers from the Mortgage Bankers of America Delinquency Survey (a sampling of more than 44 million mortgage loans serviced by mortgage companies).
It estimates that Ohio will see approximately 87,500 new foreclosures in 2009. The nonpartisan research group found that 2.8 million neighboring homeowners would be impacted, and that home values would be lowered by an estimated $4.7 billion.
If you live anywhere in Ohio, foreclosures affect you. Ohioans can’t let naive optimism be one more excuse to do nothing about a foreclosure crisis that isn’t going away soon.
Bill Faith is executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Guest Columns
