Cleveland Schools Part II

The Ohio Board of Education rejected Gov. Kasich's plea that the panel endorse Mayor Jackson's plan for fixing Cleveland's schools. The Board is asking for a "collaborative" and "bipartisan" fix. The 19-member boarded debated for more then an hour and then agreed to strip any reference to Jackson's plan. They unanimously passed a resolution encouraging the mayor, lawmakers, teachers, and others to work together on a plan to improve student performance and financial woes.

The resolution doesn't actually supply any suggestions for what a plan might look like. However Mary Rose Oakar, a board member, said, "It [the resolution] says that people should cooperate, which didn't happen in the beginning."

The Board wants to improve Cleveland schools, but they don't agree with Jackson's plan and don't want to appear to be endorsing the plan. A large complaint was the lack of teacher involvement in the plan. Ann Jacobs, a Lima board member, said, "I don't think it's appropriate to impose something upon the stakeholders when the input of the stakeholders."

As previously mention, Jackson's plan would allow the district to fire ineffective teachers, share local tax revenue with privately operated charter schools, expand preschools to all 4-year-olds in the district, and lengthen the school day or year to give students more time to learn. Originally, Jackson didn't include teachers, parents, and others in his planning process. Currently, Jackson is negotiating with teachers and the teacher union, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, over aspects of the plan which deal with collective-bargaining rights.

Jackson's plan was praised by Kasich, because it is like SB 5 lite. Ohio voters overturned Kasich's anti-union legislation so now they are trying to do the same thing on a smaller level where it won't be voted on by the public.