No more talk. It's time to act.

September 15, 2008

Five policy recommendations for strengthening Ohio's public schools

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute today released its newest report, Accelerating Student Learning in Ohio: Five Policy Recommendations for Strengthening Public Education in the Buckeye State (see here).

The report comes as Gov. Ted Strickland concludes his 12-city "Conversation on Education" tour in Mansfield (see here); although, nearly two years into his administration, he has yet to tell Ohioans what his education plan will be. It also comes in the midst of a hard-fought presidential campaign in which both candidates are traversing the Buckeye State pitching their brands of education reform.

Barack Obama surprised many when, speaking in Dayton a few days ago, he called for doubling federal spending for charter schools as well as such innovations as performance pay for teachers-and doing something about bad teachers (see here). These ideas certainly accord with Fordham's recommendations for Ohio.

In contrast to the governor and long-cherished Democratic positions in Ohio, Sen. Obama is now calling for important changes that Ohio reformers and outside analysts have been urging for years. Some of his ideas, such as supporting quality charters while holding them accountable for results, no doubt come from his experience representing a Chicago-area constituency in the Illinois legislature. Chicago has been a leader in creating quality charter schools as part of the district's "Renaissance 2010" efforts (see here). Obama surely is also influenced by the charter efforts of Democratic mayors like

» Continued

No more talk. It's time to act.