Education Law

A cry for help as public education funding is in crisis

Valerie Strauss on The Washington Post?s blog, The Answer Sheet, posted an alarming e-mail that education advocate and author Diane Ravitch recently received from a school teacher in Toledo.

Here is an excerpt of the e-mail:

For the second time in the past six months, voters have turned down our school levy in the City of Toledo regardless of the fact that our school district has already imposed drastic cuts. Transportation has been eliminated, sports have been slashed and teachers with many years of seniority have been laid off.

I find myself in a position of being laid off for next school year despite having 19 years of seniority. It used to be that entering the educational profession, which despite little pay, at least offered a promise of job security. Now even that small reward for public service is gone.

Worse yet, the electorates in the State of Ohio voted for a full slate of politicians who are not friendly towards public education. Whereas Ohio is recognized as a bellwether state for politics, I believe the same holds true for education. We have some of the highest number of charter schools in the country. [Some of ] our charter schools are in such disarray that this past spring, the governing boards of 10 Ohio charter schools actually filed a lawsuit against their charter school operators. With their continued infighting and transfer of public funds into private hands, I do not understand why they are not being held to the same standards as public education.

BoardBuzz wonders if this is new reality for public education.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on November 08, 2010 (boomark / email).