Columbus Dispatch...
Kasich fights GOP on education changes
Proposed amendments would alter more than a dozen aspects of Kasich’s plan
By  Joe Vardon  and  Catherine Candisky

Tuesday May 8, 2012 

Gov. John Kasich fought back against Senate Republicans changes to his third-grade reading guarantee today, arguing they would “weaken efforts to improve education for Ohio’s children.” 

In an e-mailed statement, Kasich said he was “troubled by moves underway in the Senate,” but focused his comments entirely on a GOP lawmaker’s proposal to water down Kasich’s third-grade reading guarantee by postponing it for a year and making it so a smaller number of children would be impacted. 

This afternoon, state schools Superintendent Stan Heffner warned that the changes created “loopholes” that could undermine Ohio’s effort to get federal regulators to approve its request for a waiver from certain provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. 

“As educators, we know that failure to identify struggling readers in early grades dooms them to a lifetime of struggle. We have an obligation to ensure that students have the help they need to be successful and that’s why it’s so important to have high standards and good intervention systems”, Heffner said 

The criticism seemed to catch Senate Republican leaders by surprise. 

“We are making sure every child gets help,” said Senate Education Chairwoman Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering. “I think we are 100 percent with the governor on this.” 

The administration’s concerns came as the education committee this morning unanimously approved amendments impacting more than a dozen aspects of Kasich’s education plan – including delaying a proposed new grading system for school performance and a requirement that 3rd-grade students not reading at grade level be held back. 

“The legislation being considered in the Senate would let principals promote kids even if they’re struggling with reading, micromanage how struggling readers are helped, strip parents of the chance to seek outside reading help for their kids and simply lower reading standards,” Kasich said. 

“In the early grades kids learn to read so that in their later grades they can read to learn. We can’t do anything to undermine that, because if we do we’re only hurting kids, and in three meetings with the Senate in just the past week my staff has expressed that.  

“I’m hopeful we can work things out in the Senate but if not I’ll appeal to the House for the improvements our kids need—and deserve,” Kasich concluded. 

The Senate is expected to approve the bill Wednesday and send it to the House. 

Lehner said she shares the governor’s goal of ensuring all children are reading at grade level by 4th grade. The changes made by the Senate, she said, strengthen, not weaken, Kasich’s plan. 

Yet, some seem to undermine Kasich’s basic message on education — which has been that schools’ standards are not high enough and the schools are not teaching children as well as many parents think. 

For instance, the Senate version of the third-grade reading guarantee would require only the lowest-performing students to be held back – those scoring below “limited,” on state reading tests, the lowest of five benchmarks. Kasich had proposed students scoring below “proficient,” the middle measure, be held back. 

The Senate version also provides an exception for students if their principal decides they should be promoted to 4th grade. It also pushed back a year the governor’s request that students not reading at grade level to be retained beginning in next school year, 2012-2013. 

Lehner said schools will be required to provide intervention services to struggling students beginning this year but it seemed fair to give youngsters a year of help before holding them back a grade. 

However, she the new cut score may be too low. “I have some concerns about moving it down to ‘limited.’ I would be open to moving it.” 

The Senate version also creates a new task force would provide recommendations to lawmakers by Oct. 1 about the new letter-grade system and would address concerns about how districts are graded. Kasich’s rating system would cause most schools in the state to drop a letter grade, or two. 

The task force would include Kasich’s education czar, the state superintendent and president of the state’s school board, and General Assembly members appointed by leadership in both political parties. 

Also, the task force would be required to “consult with one or more nonprofit organizations that have been responsible for developing policy recommendations for a similar letter grade rating system for schools implemented in other states.” 

One such nonprofit organization, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, paid $1,984.76 for Lehner to travel to California for a “digital learning” education conference last fall. Bush’s foundation paid for other lawmakers to attend the conference, as well as then-head of the Governor’s Office of 21st Century Education, Robert D. Sommers, and Ohio schools Superintendent Stan W. Heffner. Numerous lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, also attended. 

Lehner said she is not trying to direct business to Bush’s foundation or any other nonprofit but wanted to be sure that Ohio consider what’s worked in other states and what’s not what, and not just rely on the state Department of Education to come up with a new grading system. 

The proposed amendment also would make some changes to a requirement that teachers be retested if their students are not performing well. Under the provision, evaluators would decide if a teacher should have professional development, be retested in the subject he or she teaches, or both. 

Education policy is the latest dispute between Kasich and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. The governor is also at odds with lawmakers over his proposal to raise severance taxes on shale drillers and using the proceeds to fund a statewide income tax cut, and he’s warned GOP members that he would veto spending of the state’s expected revenue surplus. 

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