Apr

4

Strickland: Unable to identify “Effective”

April 4, 2007 |

Photo Credit: Lima News where Gov. Strickland visits a school in Kenton

This really spells doom for Ohio if the Governor can’t identify programs that are effective. Obviously Strickland has missed it when it comes to the Ohio voucher program where parents can receive up to $5,000 per student to help find competitive education alternatives when public schools are not performing well. It opens the door to children stuck and their potential future is on the line. Today there are many children across Ohio just wondering what their future holds. Governor is choice only for the rich?

Perhaps the children could entitle this article… “The Minister who made me cry.”

COLUMBUS - Supporters of Ohio’s statewide school voucher program yesterday accused Gov. Ted Strickland of caving in to teachers’ unions and stealing the hope of children by trying to kill the program.

“This is personal,” said a tearful Becky Jordan, whose daughter attends East Liverpool Christian School at state expense.

“This is my daughter,” she said. “This is her education, and he’s trying to take it away from her.”
In his $52.9 billion, two-year budget proposal, the Democratic governor called for elimination of the first-year program providing grants for private school tuition for students seeking to escape academically struggling public schools.

Parents with children receiving Educational Choice Scholarships from Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Youngstown, and East Liverpool met yesterday with House Speaker Jon Husted (R., Kettering). They hope the Republican-controlled General Assembly will defend the program.

Parents may receive grants of up to $4,250 a year for K-8 students and $5,000 for high school students, or the actual tuition cost, whichever is less.

The state will spend $13 million this year to send 3,000 students to private schools in a program that has slots for 14,000. Department of Education spokesman J.C. Benton said applications this year are running ahead of last year’s pace.

Mr. Strickland, meanwhile, continued his road tour stumping for his budget yesterday at a Jackson elementary school in southern Ohio.

“The governor deeply believes that we should be targeting our resources and efforts toward an effective public education system rather than removing resources to benefit a very small segment of the student population at the expense of others,” said his spokesman, Keith Dailey.

Truly tragic when someone really believes the government can be more effective than the American people whom they are supposed to serve.


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Dave on April 5, 2007 8:00 am

    Why doesn’t the Governor visit the private schools and tell the students why he wants them to send them back to a failing school.

  2. Conservative Culture on April 5, 2007 8:25 am

    Good question. I would pay money to see that event.

  3. Ted Fischer on April 11, 2007 12:55 pm

    He is trying to do the same to those of us who home school. we need to rattle our reps cage and tell them quit selling voters out to the unions

  4. Paul Dilley on May 9, 2007 10:38 pm

    Article said

    “The state will spend $13 million this year to send 3,000 students to private schools in a program that has slots for 14,000.”

    What the article failed to include is what it would cost to keep those same 3000 students “in” the public schools and according to the state average which is $9366 per child per year it would cost a mind boggling 28,098,000!! 28 million or 13 million hmm which makes more sense?

    This number is probably higher because some districts are much higher than the state average!

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