county news online
Dayton Daily News...
Kasich wants students better prepared for jobs
By Christopher Magan and Margo Rutledge Kissell, Staff Writers
Friday, March 11, 2011

During his first State of the State address, Gov. John Kasich spoke passionately about education, saying he wants significant reform to ensure Ohio’s students are prepared for the jobs he wants to bring to the state.

The Republican governor reaffirmed this week that K-12 and higher education are “critical to our economic future.”

Work force training for the real world was an overarching theme of the address. Kasich cited a report showing there are 63,000 unfilled jobs across the state and said CEOs tell him they don’t have the skilled workers they need now. Honda, for instance, needs employees who can make sure the robots are working properly.

“We have not been able to connect both K-12 and the vocational education, higher education and our technical schools, community colleges and our universities to real stuff,” he said. “We have to get that done, and we’re going to work like crazy on it.”

Kasich said he wants to link the needs of business with the curriculum in the classroom. University innovators could get a stake in the economic benefits of their research; schools may have to share services to save money.

“All of these reforms are going to make us stronger,” he said.

Education leaders are awaiting Kasich’s budget proposal that will be released Tuesday to see how deeply he will cut education spending to bridge an $8 billion budget gap. Ohio spent $10.4 billion on education last year when stimulus dollars are included.

The state has 1.78 million K-12 students, down from 1.8 million a decade ago. The state’s colleges and universities have added more than 100,000 students in the same time, bringing enrollment to 436,109 in 2010.

Ohio educators will have to make do without $2.1 billion in stimulus money they used to balance their budgets in the past two years — $177 million in the Miami Valley.

Administrators are hopeful that with the cuts, Kasich will give them some leeway on how they spend their money by loosening regulations.

“We are trying to provide the tools to those affected to help them absorb the loss of revenue and resources,” Kasich said. “Let’s have common sense.”

Critics charge that eliminating some of what Kasich calls “unfunded mandates,” such as all-day kindergarten or more days of instruction by reducing calamity days, will hurt the state’s education system and the students it serves.

Tuesday’s speech made it clear that changes are coming. Kasich said the controversial program Teach for America, which brings new college graduates from other fields of study with minimal teacher training into troubled schools, would be coming to Ohio.

He praised the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which focuses on the United States’ lagging education system, and said he wants to screen it in Columbus.

“It will get you angry, it will get you frustrated, it will make you cry and it will get you to begin to stand up for our kids when you have an opportunity,” Kasich said.

Teachers unions and other education experts have been critical of the film as oversimplifying problems and the success of charter schools.

The state’s community colleges are fertile ground for Kasich’s idea of tying education to existing jobs and emerging industries.

Deb Norris, vice president of Sinclair Community College’s workforce development and corporate services, said educators are focusing more and more on jobs and the needs of area industry.

“The landscape has changed,” Norris said. “The conversation is now about how do we become responsive, how do we meet the needs of industry.”

Examples of how such programs would work and how they might be spread across the state can be found both on campus and in a unique partnership Sinclair forged with Dayton Public Schools when the $35.5 million David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center opened in 2009.

The high school at Washington Street and Edwin C. Moses Boulevard offers 16 career pathways in arts and communications, business and information technology, health and education, industrial arts and engineering. Each of the programs was developed with Sinclair and is aligned to similar programs at the community college.

Students should have their eye on college and a career from early on, Norris said.

The goal of Ponitz is to serve as an economic engine for the region by producing students who are ready for college and careers, and who have the academic and technical skills needed to add value to the workplace.

For Kasich, programs like these are key to the state’s future. “Nothing should stand in our way of (giving) Ohio the ability to lead in this country and be able to compete in the world,” he said. “We better commit ourselves to this and get this fixed.”

Read it at Dayton Daily News


 
senior scribes

County News Online

is a Fundraiser for the Senior Scribes Scholarship Committee. All net profits go into a fund for Darke County Senior Scholarships
contact
Copyright © 2011 and design by cigs.kometweb.com