Featured Article
School Choice and "Creative Destruction"
By David W. Kirkpatrick
School
choice has many variations the most successful of which is the charter
school movement. There were no such schools prior to 1992
when the first one opened in St. Paul, Minnesota, a school which still
functions today. That lonely beginning has grown in sixteen
short years to more than 4200 such schools, enrolling more than a
million and a quarter students. While skirmishes with an
adamant opposition continue it is highly unlikely that such a movement,
which continues to expand yearly, will be stopped much less reversed.
One feature of charter schools, little noted by either advocates or
opponents is that fact that some 500 such schools never got off the
ground or were subsequently closed. Nor, if it is noted, is
it recognized as the positive feature of the movement that it is.
Buckeye Voices
American Conservative Union Vice Chairman Dr. Donald Devine discusses Federalism and the future of conservatism with Buckeye Institute President David Hansen. Dr. Devine is also director of the Federalist Leadership Center. The Center is co-hosting a Federalist Leadership School with the Buckeye Institute on April 3. Details are available here.
Ohio Teacher Pay Increasing
The Columbus Dispatch reports "The average salary among Columbus teachers last school year was $59,713, up more than $6,600 in four years."
In
How
Well Does Ohio Pay its Teachers?, Buckeye Institute Education
Policy Director Matthew Carr writes,"Our traditional approach of simply
offering higher salaries to all teachers has not achieved its intended
result of producing higher returns on our investment. While higher
salaries may help draw better qualified people into the teaching
profession, it still relies on altruism, rather than tangible rewards,
for performance. We have offered high salaries without creating
incentives for excellence in return."
Ozone Regs Hit Ohio Hard
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Two years ago, the director of the state's Environmental Protection Agency issued a dour prediction that made few people breathe easy: Northeast Ohio, he said, could not meet clean-air requirements by 2010. On Tuesday, the region sat on the cusp of meeting that federally mandated target. But on Wednesday, the U.S. EPA announced tougher ground-level ozone regulations designed to protect the public's health. And just like that, the region fell behind in its quest to make the air clean enough to meet federal guidelines."
In
Ozone Regulations Target
Ohio's Economy,
Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer
writes, "Meeting current ozone standards costs our economy around $20
billion a year. The amount would increase if the current standards are
made even tougher. These burdensome regulations would be especially
devastating in Ohio. The state has experienced a loss of almost 250,000
manufacturing jobs since 2000. Strict new ozone regulations would hit
the state's manufacturing sector hard, likely leading to even
more of these jobs leaving the state."
Child-Centered Education Reform
The Toledo Blade reports, "A weighted student funding system could help fix inequalities of funding in Ohio school districts, a study released yesterday shows. Using weighted student funding would allow dollars to follow students to the schools they actually attend, spending would be determined according to the needs of the student, and principals could have more flexibility using money to help students, according to Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute."
In
Perspective
and Priorities in Education, Matthew Carr writes,
"the goal of the education debate in Ohio should be to improve the
education system so that more of our students can lead successful and
fulfilling lives. That should be our focus and that is where all of our
efforts should be directed. Every education policy should be
student-centered. Anything less is an abdication of our responsibility
and commitment for providing the best possible education to all of
Ohio’s students."
Buckeye Institute in the News
The Hillsboro Times-Gazette published David Owsiany's column on the Ohio Supreme Court and Dr. Sam Staley's column on Governor Strickland's debt proposal.
