OhioNewsBureau

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who won office in 2006 saying he would “turnaround” Ohio from more than a decade of Republican policies that facilitated the exit of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and siphoned off tax dollars from public schools to private charter schools and who promised to correct Ohio’s court-declared unconstitutional system of education in his first term, signed an executive order that makes it possible for military veterans living around the world to attend one of the state’s many public colleges for little or no money.

Honing in on the bill Congress recently approved that provided billions in Iraq War funding to President Bush, Strickland’s invitation to soldiers and veterans to claim their college degree in Ohio hopes to parlay the GI-bill component of the bill into a parade of trained, skilled men and women marching to the Buckeye State to trade their uniforms, helmets and weapons in for school robes, mortar board with tassels and degrees.

"When you put on this nation's uniform, you become an honorary Ohioan,'' Strickland said in a published report. “There is a world-class education awaiting you in Ohio and a lifetime of opportunity after that.''

Democratic presidential hopeful, Ilinois Sen. Barack Obama, issued a news release to the OhioNewsBureau applauding Strickland on opening Ohio colleges to veterans.

"I applaud the State of Ohio which under Governor Ted Strickland has acknowledged the service of our veterans and their families and recognized the importance of higher education.  This plan makes all veterans, their spouses and dependants “Honorary Ohioans” providing them in-state tuition rates for Ohio’s 36 state colleges and universities.  This initiative honors our compact with our veterans and is a model for the nation." [Barack Obama, Media Release]

The 17th state, Ohio has a rich history of leadership, from science and industry to presidents and aviation. Ohioans have in the past been especially proud of their system of public schools and the many small colleges that dot the state from one corner to the other. Strickland, by issuing his executive order, showed Ohio still have the ability to lead, making it the first state to capitalize on the benefits of the bill President Bush signed at the end of June.

The enticing aspect of Strickland’s bold move, one many expect other states to model, is to treat veterans who participate in the program as though they were state residents, enabling them to low tuition at both two- and four-year public colleges and universities. Even more alluring is that the spouses and children of veterans would also be treated as if they were Ohio residents, even though they don’t qualify for the GI Bill’s tuition benefits.

Strickland, who inherited a state economy damaged from the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and that continues to suffer from the sweep of home foreclosures, high fuel and food costs and college costs that are higher than the average cost of colleges elsewhere, is leaving no stone unturned as he looks for ways to bring people and jobs back to this heartland state that figures large in the race for president this year. Ohio has sent about 46,000 members of its National Guard to Iraq and Afghanistan and is in the top ten of states who have suffered the most war deaths. While only three Ohio lawmakers have completed active duty tours in these wars, the balance of lawmakers have sought to honor the service of Ohio’s soldiers in several ways, one of which the recent passage of a bill that exempts military pensions from state income tax.

The Ohio GI Promise Council, whose purpose is to market the program near and far, was created by the stroke of Strickland’s pen along with a GI hotline and Web site, among other items . This effort aligns well with Strickland’s push of reorganizing Ohio’s colleges in a way that reduces duplication and maximizes the areas of excellence of each, in a similar fashion to what California has done in its system of higher education. A major goal of what Strickland wants to do and what he has charged his Chancellor of Education, Eric Fingerhut, to do is to increase higher education enrollment by 230,000 in the next two years.

OHIO: A FOREST OF SCHOOL TROUBLES

But while this is good news for Ohio and for veterans who use their GI-Bill benefits in it, Strickland is still caught in a forest of problems that includes crafting an education system that meets the criteria set out in the Ohio Constitution – a task the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled on four times before has not been achieved – bringing the state Superintendent of Education under his direct control, dealing with test scores and keeping young brains from leaving the state when they’ve completed their K-12 schooling.

It’s a daunting task by itself, but with a General Assembly still led by Republicans, who have for years believed that public education needed competition to improve them and then created a system of private charter schools to whom they then gave tens of millions of dollars, Strickland has his work cut out for him, as he finds a path through the forest to a clearing every one can gather in, as the state bets its future on having the brain power to command the knowledge jobs of the future.

STRICKLAND TO CRISSCROSS STATE WITH EDUCATION FORUMS 

Republicans, who have been out foxed by Strickland from his first day in office on a variety off issues, have challenged the first Democratic governor in 16 years to come up with a plan quickly to make Ohio’s system of education constitutional again. During their control of the governor’s office and the state legislature, the Supreme Court of Ohio has declared on four occasions that the state-funded school system is unconstitutional. Instead of fixing the problem, Republicans took their own path, creating a school building finance program and private charter schools as an alternative to doing what they now want Strickland to do.

Strickland has declared that his first term will be unsuccessful unless he comes up with a plan that all stakeholders can agree upon. To this end but within his own timetable, he has scheduled a dozen sessions at forums around the state that will give the public to contribute to a general education reform package he hopes to launch next year, as he gears up for re-election in 2010. Strickland has been meeting privately with education experts and business leaders this year as part of his plan to gather ideas and input from a variety of sources, which will be melded with what he hears from these upcoming public forums to craft the most important policy stance of his administration.

BUSH GIVES OHIO MORE FREEDOM TO FIX SCHOOLS

President Bush’s controversial plan to penalize schools that leave children behind who aren’t taught math and reading skills as they should, has given Ohio, and five other states, a liberty pass to fashion their own plans under a pilot program announced by Education Secretary Margaret Spelling in early July. Ohio was selected as one of the pilot states because it came up with a plan to “more closely tailor solutions to individual schools’ problems and focus."

TESTING TESTS OHIO SYSTEM

Testing in many states including Ohio, have been controversial and lead to the growing battle between public schools and the teacher unions that defend them and private charter schools and investors who hope to make money from them. In Ohio, where a five-part Ohio Graduation Test must be passed by high school students to earn their degree, fewer sophomores, for the second year in a row, have failed to all five part of it, according to state data, as shown in a published report.

According to the data, 65 percent of the state’s 135,000 public-school sophomores who took the test this March passed all five sections of the test introduced in 2005. This number represents a slight decrease from previous years and includes students attending publicly financed charter schools. Moreover, the passage rate does not include private-school sophomores, who according to published reports passed the five-part test at a rate greater than 86 percent.

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