Ida Lieszkovszky is the Cleveland-based reporter for StateImpact Ohio. She covered a variety of topics for WCPN in Cleveland, her hometown, before heading out West to cover state government for Capitol Public Radio in California. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and psychology from Miami University.
Today Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty announced that ten people and thirteen companies are being indicted as a result of the audit’s findings.
Charges include corruption, theft and money laundering.
The special audit found that payments were made on behalf of the school to thirteen shell companies, all of which were either owned by or affiliated with school officials and board members. Continue Reading →
A decade ago, more than twice as many Ohio children were enrolled in the state’s preschool program than now.
According to a recent report by the National Institute for Early Education Research, in 2011-2012 total state enrollment for preschool was 9,379. The state only paid for 5,700 of those students; the rest were paid for by parents, local dollars or federal funds.
Compare that to the 2001-2002 school year when 23,599 Ohio children were enrolled in the state’s preschool program. Continue Reading →
La Salle High School was put on lockdown after a student shot himself in the head during class earlier today.
A student at La Salle High School in Cincinnati is in critical condition after he pulled out a gun during class this morning and shot himself in the head.
The student was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and school officials say all other students at the Catholic all-boys school are safe.
School spokesman Greg Tankersley told our colleagues at WVXU that no other students were threatened. They have been sent home with parents.
“It’s a very tragic situation for a Monday morning,” Tankersley told WVXU. “We’re doing everything we can. Our number one priority is with that student that was involved and then with the students in the building.” Continue Reading →
A new Ohio law aimed at protecting student athletes after they’ve received a concussion goes into effect today.
Last fall, of the more than 46,000 high school football players in the state, 175 were pulled out of games because they got concussions. Of those, 14 were cleared and sent back into play.
Under the new law, coaches aren’t allowed to send those kids back into the game.
John Carey has been appointed chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.
Former state Rep. John Carey will be the new leader of Ohio’s public university system.
Gov. John Kasich appointed Carey chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents today, effective Monday. His appointment is subject to state Senate approval.
Carey says his biggest goal will be to better align higher education to the jobs that are available in the state, an effort long advocated by Kasich.
“Right now, we have thousands of jobs that are going unfilled because we don’t have people with the skills or the education to fill them,” he says. “So one of my goals is to try to help to fill that gap.”
There are no walls or doors between classrooms at Warren Local schools. Instead, the school has put up bookshelves and lockers as makeshift walls.
Carrollton Schools in rural Carol County hasn’t passed a levy since 1977. Union Local Schools in rural Belmont County hasn’t passed an operating levy since 1976. And the mid 1990′s was the last time officials at Warren Local Schools in rural Washington County managed to pass a levy for new funds to run the district.
Tom Gibbs, the superintendent at Warren Local, says he’s tried to pass six levies in the last four years, and failed each time.
In fact, since 2000, Washington County has passed just 20 percent of its schools requests for new local money.
Compare that to Franklin County, which includes Columbus. It has passed 51 percent of all new school levy requests. Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, has passed 43 percent of theirs over the last 13 years.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited a Cleveland school today to tout the Cleveland Plan, the district's effort to turn around its struggling schools.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was in Ohio today to talk about education reform efforts and meet with area superintendents.
He used his visit to Cleveland to tout efforts to turn around the failing district, known as the Cleveland Plan.
Duncan’s first stop was a preschool classroom at Anton Grdina elementary school, where he learned to plant beans along with several Cleveland preschoolers.
When asked by a teacher to identify the day’s big visitor, the students responded “Mr. Duncan, Barack Obama the President’s friend.” Continue Reading →
An amendment added to the state budget bill yesterday prohibits teachers from talking about any “gateway sexual activity” and directs them to emphasize abstinence in sex education.
Teachers who don’t comply could be fined up to $5,000 if the measure passes.
It’s been a week since the Ohio House revealed its version of the state budget, and along with it a revised school funding formula.
In that time, several education insiders and reporters have tried to estimate how much the House plans to spend on education compared with how much Governor John Kasich’s plan would.
But that’s easier said than done.
The governor’s plan and the House’s version work differently, which is why over the past week at least four different estimates have been floating around: Continue Reading →
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