COLUMBUS -Though Senate Republicans scaled back a voucher program for children in failing schools, they have proposed their own get-tough approach for districts that are not making the grade.
Districts in academic emergency for four consecutive years would be subjected to state-run committees in charge of the districts' basic operations until they improve, under a provision in the Senate version of the upcoming state budget.
The five-member Academic Distress Commissions could appoint school administrators, establish district budgets and approve district spending. The state schools superintendent would appoint three members and local boards would appoint two members.
We decided if a school had been in academic emergency for several years
we had to take a much stronger approach towards trying to get them back on track again said Senate Education Chairwoman Joy Padgett.
The 2002 federal education law known as the No Child Left Behind Act already increases regulations on student testing, data collection, teacher qualifications and intervention for children who fall behind.
Ohio put several of the requirements in place under revisions to the state's proficiency test system.
Padgett, a Republican from Coshocton, in eastern Ohio, said the commission proposal is another aspect of intervention.
This is sort of like that last-ditch type opportunity she said. They know about it. They know it's coming and hopefully they will take a lot of the intervention measures to prevent themselves from getting to that distressed commission.
Only four districts were in academic emergency last year, and comparisons with previous years are difficult because the types of standards districts must meet have changed.
Jefferson Township schools near Dayton were in academic watch two years ago and fell into academic emergency last year. Superintendent Norris Brown said he wishes people who think they have answers to education would share their ideas instead of threatening school takeovers.
The district of 750 students met just two of 18 academic standards in the 2003-04 school year.
We want our schools to be achieving just like high-achieving schools
Brown said. You get the impression when you listen to some of these folks that we want our kids to perform at the level they're performing at.
He said the majority of his students are poor and they often need more time to improve.
School boards are wary of the concept.
Those are the people elected to represent school districts
said Fred Pausch, legislative services director for the Ohio School Boards Association. They're responsible. They're accountable to the taxpayer. That's our public school system.
House Republicans, who passed their version of the $51 billion budget in April without such a measure, are still reviewing details of the Senate budget, said Rep. John Schlichter of Greenfield in southwestern Ohio, chairman of the House Finance subcommittee on education.
The intervention is consistent with a theme in this year's budget of challenging districts to do a better job academically.
When Gov. Bob Taft introduced his proposal to expand the state's voucher program to 70 struggling schools, he said he was tired of schools' failure to help struggling children.
The House version of the budget expanded that to 18,000 vouchers for children in poor-performing districts. The Senate kept the concept but scaled it back to 10,000 students in low-performing schools.
School choice is going to be with us in Ohio for a long
long time
Padgett said. I want to make sure that regardless of the choice that parents make
that they have a way to determine that they are making a choice in a quality educational environment.
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