Featured Article
Charter Schools: Helping Students and Saving Taxpayers
By Matthew Carr and Beth LearThe current public relations war against charter schools led by Ohio's traditional public school district officials, teacher unions, and some of their allies at the statehouse, has generated a number of myths. It's time to set the record straight about how public charter schools are funded and whether or not they actually "drain" the traditional public school districts of resources.
BuckeyeVoices
In
this week's BuckeyeVoices,
Buckeye Institute President David Hansen discusses education, labor and
tax issues with WSPD 1370's Brian Wilson in Toledo.
New at the Buckeye Institute
The Buckeye Institute released a study showing public charter schools provide a great value to Ohio's K-12 education system.
More Money Won't Fix Education
Akron
Beacon Journal writer Dennis Willard contends,
"the governor can do all the listening and talking in the world during
his school-funding reform tour, but the bottom line is, the system
cannot be fixed without the state spending more money and depending
less on local property taxes."
In
Getting it Wrong for
Ohio's Future,
Buckeye Institute education policy director Matt Carr writes,
"Attempts to mandate ever increasing funding for Ohio's public schools
... all utilize the same misdirection. The preponderance of the
evidence on the relationship between school spending and student
achievement has reached the same conclusion. More money does not equal
better schools. The issue is no longer how much money is spent on
schools, but how schools use the funding."
Medicaid's Mounting Problems
A Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial notes, "overall Medicaid spending is up sharply. From July 1 through Oct. 31, Ohio spent $3.97 billion on Medicaid. For the 2007 period, the tab was $3.62 billion. That's a 9.7 percent increase -- and a cold welcome for spenders' letters to Santa Claus, care of Strickland's Statehouse workshop."
In Reform, Don't Expand, Medicaid, Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes, "Medicaid is a program that is unsustainable for the future, and unless Ohio undertakes serious reforms, this program will burden the state's taxpayers with high taxes and it will be unable to serve the neediest people who rely on the system for medical care."
Teacher Unions Standing in the Way
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports, "With major contract talks looming next year, Cincinnati Public Schools and its teachers union are preparing to renegotiate a short-term deal on salaries and benefits."
In
Teacher
Union Contracts Keep Schools from Competing,
Buckeye Institute President David Hansen writes,
"Across the state, teacher union contracts - the epitome of regulatory
accountability of schools - defeat the best attempts of public school
systems to respond to the demands of market accountability in the form
of parents newly empowered with school choice options. Parental choice
strategies are still needed to simply save as many children as possible
from our failing public schools. Unfortunately for the children left
behind in public school systems, teacher union contracts are the
greatest impediment to the meaningful reform promised by parental
choice."
Buckeye
Institute in the News
WHIO quoted David Hansen in a story on OSU hiring Rep. Joyce Beatty. Hansen was also interviewed by WSPD 1370 AM's Brian Wilson.
Gongwer News Service and the Lima News discussed the Buckeye Institute's report on how charter schools affect public school financing.
The Hillsboro Times Gazette published Jennifer Miller's op-ed on the lawsuit filed by her and the Buckeye Institute against ACORN.
