Mark Urycki / StateImpact Ohio
The education mentions of Governor John Kasich’s proposed two-year, roughly $72 billion operating budget span a wide range of subjects, including increased preschool funding, changes to how schools earn their shares of state money, and making college more affordable.
On Wednesday afternoon, Kaisch visited a Cleveland charter school and discussed a few big points.
Charter schools: Kasich reiterated his support for school choice. His budget plans call for two new developments when it comes to charter schools, including giving charters the possibility to put levies on tax ballots.
“You got to go and make your case to voters about levies,” said Kasich. “And now we’re giving these charters an opportunity to say ‘look, we’re doing a great job, we need more help.’ I think that’s an appropriate way to do it.”
Over the past several years in Ohio, new money tax requests have passed at lower rates than renewal requests.
The budget also calls for creating a charter evaluation system which would shell out ratings to school sponsors. Under the system, sponsors with poor ratings could potentially lose their schools.
Youngstown City Schools: Things in Youngstown haven’t been going so well--the district has been in academic distress since 2010.
Kasich made a slight mention of the city's schools while praising the level of community involvement woven into state legislation aimed at improving the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
“I’m trying to do some of this in Youngstown,” he said. “It takes time to develop the community leaders who basically say ‘I want skin in the game, and I’m here to serve, and I’m not here to get, and I’m willing to stick my neck on the line.'”
When later asked about any potential agenda for Youngstown, he remained pretty mum on details.
“People in the community are working on stuff right away, that’s all I can say at this point,” he said, adding the Cleveland Plan took years to develop.
Counselors: Kasich said he wants to see more responsive guidance counselors in schools, instead of “guarding the lunchroom or rolling out a basketball in the gym,” and would like to shell out roughly $2 million to improve counseling services.
“The counselors are critical, because we know in Ohio pretty much what the in demand jobs are and what the professions are and we need to be able to guide our kids in that direction,” he said. “We’re gonna raise the standards.”
Higher education: College affordability was a big portion of the budget. Spurred on by a question from a crowd member, Kasich detailed some of his projected proposals for higher education, including a proposal to create a $120 million debt relief fund for college graduates who stay in the state.
“We don't know exactly how the program’s gonna work,” he said. “But we wanna give it to those public school university graduates if they will take an in-demand job and commit to five years staying in Ohio. Now this is probably like a pebble in the ocean when you look at the massive amounts of student debt, but I wanted there to be a recognition that we’re aware of it.”
Funding formula: One of the most talked-about aspects of the budget include a revamp of the school funding formula. Kasich broke down a portion of the changes down by saying districts should be measured on their ability to help themselves.
“If you live in a community and your property values are high, and your income is high, you have the capacity to do more to help yourself,” he said, adding the inverse is true for lower income areas.Under the proposed formula, the Cleveland Plain Dealer estimates about half of the state’s districts would see a reduction.