Teachers

Many people would be shocked to learn about the plight of teachers in Philadelphia, PA. Teachers in Philly could go on strike because of what has been offered to them in a new contract.

Kristen Graham has some of the details at Philly:


First, the financials - as already reported, pay cuts 13 percent for those who make $55,000 and above, with lesser cuts for those who earn less.  (Employees who make under $25,000 would take a 5 percent cut.)

But there would also be benefit givebacks.  Teachers and other Philadelphia Federation of Teachers members who are paid over $55k would have to pay 13 percent toward their benefits, and so on - same percentages as the pay cut.....

....Seniority would be eliminated....

It is no surprise that Michelle Rhee has visited Philadelphia and has been working with the Philadelphia school district.

Gov. Kasich is one of those conservatives that worships Rhee's "experience" in education. Rhee has won the hearts of conservatives who want to eliminate teacher unions, pay scales, and public schools. Hopefully, teachers, and the people of Ohio will stop any of these stupid conservative ideas "reforms" from being used in our state. Kasich has already hinted at some changes in education (see Dispatch). Since a majority of the teachers in Ohio are females, any attack on the teaching profession should be viewed as an attack on educated, knowledgeable women.  

Teachers should prepare for anything from Gov. Kasich. How can we ever forget his lack of respect for teachers? (See C&L, Plunderbund, Clevescene, etc.)

Contact Duffey

*** One of Gov. John Kasich's favorite legislators, State Rep. Mike Duffey, is looking for some feedback from his constituents. Duffey, a Republican, was criticized in the last election for his failure to respond to his constituents, now wants to hear from those in his district. ThisWeekCommunityNews has this link to his "survey"-

State Rep. Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) has set up an online survey for constituents to provide their opinions about Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal.
Recently, Gov. Kasich released his proposed state budget for the 2014-15 fiscal years.
- See more at: http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/worthington/news/2013/02/27/duffey-seeks-residents-input-on-kasich-budget-plan.html#sthash.M6D2y2Xf.dpuf

State Rep. Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) has set up an online survey for constituents to provide their opinions about Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal.
Recently, Gov. Kasich released his proposed state budget for the 2014-15 fiscal years.
- See more at: http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/worthington/news/2013/02/27/duffey-seeks-residents-input-on-kasich-budget-plan.html#sthash.M6D2y2Xf.dpuf

State Rep. Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) has set up an online survey for constituents to provide their opinions about Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal.
Recently, Gov. Kasich released his proposed state budget for the 2014-15 fiscal years.
- See more at: http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/worthington/news/2013/02/27/duffey-seeks-residents-input-on-kasich-budget-plan.html#sthash.M6D2y2Xf.dpuf

State Rep. Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) has set up an online survey for constituents to provide their opinions about Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal.
Recently, Gov. Kasich released his proposed state budget for the 2014-15 fiscal years.
- See more at: http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/worthington/news/2013/02/27/duffey-seeks-residents-input-on-kasich-budget-plan.html#sthash.M6D2y2Xf.dpuf

State Rep. Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) has set up an online survey for constituents to provide their opinions about Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal.
Recently, Gov. Kasich released his proposed state budget for the 2014-15 fiscal years.
- See more at: http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/worthington/news/2013/02/27/duffey-seeks-residents-input-on-kasich-budget-plan.html#sthash.M6D2y2Xf.dpuf

tinyurl.com/DuffeyBudgetSurvey#sthash.M6D2y2Xf.dpuf

           tinyurl.com/DuffeyBudgetSurvey  or  contact Mike Duffey at:                  

Mike Duffey (R)
District 21

77 S. High St
13th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 644-6030
Email Representative Duffey

Teachers may want to address Gov. Kasich's plan to do away with minimum salaries for teachers.

---------------

* While most Republicans and John Boehner have supported sequestration, Ohio people and businesses will see the results of Boehner's plans---

According to the MedinaGazette, as many as 13,000 civilian employees that work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base could be furloughed. That could be devastating to employees, their families, and businesses near the base.

Bad News For Ohioans

The more we learn about Gov. Kasich's budget, the more disgusted every Ohioan feels. In Gov. Kasich's previous budget, school districts were hit with dramatic cuts to their state funding. Kasich's new budget has made a lot of Ohioans aware of additional cuts to many agencies and departments around the state.

Many poorer school districts discovered that the new budget has no increases in funding. Superintendents from southeastern Ohio have awakened to the fact that the governor just doesn't seem to care about the plight of their struggling districts. A member of Kasich's education team even suggested that students in poorer districts could learn music online if they didn't have a music teacher available (see Plunderbund). The callous disregard that Gov. Kasich and his advisers have displayed toward education in Ohio should be a red flag to every parent and taxpayer in this state.

Gov. Kasich doesn't seem interested in providing an equal, quality education to every child in Ohio. His budget aims to cut poor districts down to the bare bones. Every person knows that in order to prepare our youngsters for a good future a good quality education is a must. However, Gov. Kasich appears to want to create two separate education systems---one for the rich, and one for the poor.

What will Ohio's future be if we fail to provide quality education for all our children? Ohioans must respond to this abhorrent school funding budget by letting our elected officials know that if they support this education inequality, that voters will not support their re-election.

Kasich Still Targeting Teachers

> Ohio Gov. John Kasich's new plan for education appears to be coming directly from Michelle Rhee, Students First, and other right wing anti-public school groups. Ohio's teachers may have thought that Kasich wasn't going to go after them again after SB5 was crushed by the public, but they are still in Kasich's sights. Kasich is still the vindictive person he has always been.

Dispatch:

....Among the changes, Kasich would:

· Eliminate the minimum teacher salary schedule from law.
The schedule sets a minimum for how teachers get automatic pay increases for years of service and educational attainment, such as earning a master’s degree. Critics, including the national education group Students First, have argued that, except for high-level math and science teachers, getting a master’s degree matters little in the quality of instruction. They also argue that, after about five years, experience also makes little difference....

· Eliminate the requirements that districts have one speech pathologist per 2,000 students and one psychologist per 2,500 students.....

If there is one thing that some people haven't learned yet it is that John Kasich and his buddies won't be happy until they've destroyed public schools and their unionized teachers. The Koch Brothers must be so proud of their pupil, John Kasich.

Problems at Privatized Prison

Gov. Kasich's big idea to sell off/lease Ohio's assets to private companies has definite consequences for everyone.

HuffingtonPost:

When a private prison corporation paid Ohio $72.7 million in 2011 to purchase one of the state's facilities, the company touted the deal as a "groundbreaking" move that would serve as a model for other states looking to cut costs.

But in the year since Corrections Corporation of America took over the 1,700-bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution, state audits have found patterns of inadequate staffing, delays in medical treatment and "unacceptable living conditions" inside the prison -- including inmates lacking access to running water and toilets. The state docked the company nearly $500,000 in pay because of the violations.

In addition, a major uptick in crime near the private prison has burdened the small town of Conneaut, Ohio, with police there making a series of recent arrests related to attempts to smuggle drugs and alcohol into the facility. Officers responded to 229 calls related to the prison last year, nearly four times as many as the previous five years combined, according to the city's crime data.....

***  Plunderbund has more details about the disasters at the private prison:

...According to the key findings of the latest inspection:

• Inmate-on-inmate assaults increased by 187.5% from 2010 to 2012
• Inmate-on-staff assaults increased by 305.9% for the same time period
• Fights increased by more than 40% from 2011 to 2012
• Disturbances doubled in comparison to prior years
• Between 2010 and 2012 total uses of force increased by 24.1% and Use of chemical agents increased by 127.3%.
• In the prior six months, 6.7% of inmates tested positive which is higher than the DRC average
• An inmate recently died from a suspected overdose of an illegal substance (heroin)....

All of this is very distressing. Local police have to continue to put their lives on the line every single time they respond to an emergency at the privatized prison. Kasich and his corporate buddies don't care about the locals and their problems, or the financial/safety costs to their community.

When Gov. Kasich presents his plan to privatize the next part of Ohio, residents should speak up and object to his proposal.

GOP Losing Public Support

>>> It had to happen. The Republicans are losing even more in the public opinion arena.

HuffPost:

President Barack Obama has a public opinion edge on the GOP as he charts out his second term and delves into yet another fiscal showdown, a Pew/USA Today poll released Thursday finds.

The debate over the sequester has drawn less attention than previous negotiations over the "fiscal cliff," and Americans are more willing this time to see automatic cuts go into effect. One constant, however, remains: Should the negotiations fail, Congress is poised to shoulder most of the blame. Nearly half of Americans said Republicans in Congress would be at fault if a deal isn't struck, while fewer than a third said Obama would be.....

....Obama's post-election bounce in job approval has largely held, but a near-record two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Republican leaders. While 88 percent of Democrats support the president, Republicans are evenly split on whether their party's officials are doing a good job. The president is favored over the congressional GOP by wide margins on immigration and climate change, and, to a lesser extent, on gun policies and the budget deficit....

Since we know that the idea of sequester was John Boehner's plan, the entire blame for this economic disaster should be placed at his feet and the entire Republican caucus. The Republicans in the House and the Senate would rather stop every Obama proposal than work with him to increase employment. In the end, the entire Republican Party looks like a bunch of buffoons with their crazed Tea Party wing leading them into the abyss.

Obama Has A Jobs Plan

• President Obama has released a jobs plan through the press office of The White House:

...Repair and maintenance of our existing roads, bridges and public transportation systems should take priority before we consider investing in new facilities.  This will ensure that our cities are safer and more modern.  But taxpayers shouldn’t have to shoulder the entire burden either.  We also know that America works best when we’re tapping the resources and ingenuity of a vibrant private sector. 
That’s why the President’s infrastructure plan calls for a Rebuild America Partnership that will attract private capital to build the infrastructure our businesses need most.  By acting on the President’s plan, together we can prove that there is no better place to do business and create jobs than right here in the United States of America.  

• Investing in a “fix-it-first” policy:  The President’s plan will immediately invest $50 billion in our nation’s transportation infrastructure, with $40 billion targeted to the most urgent upgrades and focused on fixing our highways, bridges, transit systems, and airports most in need of repair....
  
  

There is plenty more. Check out the entire document at this White House link.

-----

* Do you know how the Republicans are saying that President Obama wanted the sequester? The Republicans wanted it and there is proof.
DailyKos:

The Daily Beast's John Avlon digs up this slide from a July 31, 2011 PowerPoint presentation distributed by the office of House Speaker John Boehner to his fellow Republicans:

attribution: House Speaker John Boehner (via Daily Beast/John Avlone)

 

So back in July of 2011, Boehner was sufficiently enthusiastic about the sequester that he was willing to push it to his House Republican colleagues. But now that it's about to kick in, he blames it all on President Obama. His latest effort at the blame game: writing a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the headline "The President Is Raging Against a Budget Crisis He Created" and blaming the president for having "invented" sequestration. Follow me below the fold to examine Boehner's latest installment of the blame game.....

 

Visit DailyKos for the rest of the post.

>>>>>  The graduation at the Ohio State University will have a special commencement speaker------ President Barack Obama!!!  Wow!  The Dayton Daily News has the story.

Ohioans Against Kasich's Budget

> Ohioans are not very happy about Gov. John Kasich's new budget. As a matter of fact, a majority of Ohio are against it, according to a poll just released by Innovation Ohio:

...Among the poll’s key findings are:

• 60% of Ohioans say public schools need more state funding to improve; 59% say Ohio is doing too little to improve the quality of public education
• 62% say helping localities fund schools, fire and police is more important to them than reducing the state income tax
• 62% favor raising Ohio’s severance tax on oil and natural gas to the Texas rate —and using the money to offset state budget cuts to local governments
• 74% favor a plan to create tax incentives for energy companies to hire Ohio workers
• 57% oppose borrowing against future Ohio Turnpike tolls in order to fund road, bridge and other infrastructure projects now...

Since Kasich doesn't care what Ohioans think, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few months. I urge every Ohioan to call your members of the Ohio Senate and Ohio House and voice your opposition to this incredibly unfair budget.  If you are against having new school levies at every election, you should oppose this budget. If you are against more privatization, and more tax cuts for the wealthy, you must oppose the Kasich budget.


>  Did you know that both Republican Rep. Steve Stivers and Sen. Rob Portman are endorsed by the NRA? Any candidate supported by the NRA and their spokesman, is not a friend of mine.

Filibuster

The Republicans are involved in a filibuster against the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. The Republicans want 60 votes for approval. It is odd because for the nomination of John Ashcroft for Attorney General in 2001, Ashcroft got 58 yes votes, and was confirmed (U.S. Senate: http://tinyurl.com/29u8j). 

Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator from Texas, should be ashamed of himself for his attempt to smear the reputation of decorated military veteran, Chuck Hagel. Even MSNBC host, Joe Scarborough was disgusted with Ted Cruz's insinuations. See this MSNBC link.

100 years....

* Today we celebrate the 100th birthday of  Ohio State's own---Coach Woody Hayes.  I was a student during part of his time at Ohio State, and when we lived near campus after our undergraduate years. His contributions to Ohio State University, the football program, and his philanthropy were immense. The Ohio State University Library has a tribute to Woody Hayes online today.

>  Leave it to Ohio Gov. John Kasich to use his State of the State Speech to make it into a political data collection event.
LimaNews:


Ohio's Democratic chairman is questioning the propriety of a public online lottery for State of the State tickets organized by Gov. John Kasich.

Through the contest at http://governor.ohio.gov/tickets, the Republican governor offered a limited number of tickets to next Tuesday's policy address in Lima. The deadline to enter is today, and winners are to be notified Friday.


In a Wednesday letter to House Speaker William Batchelder, Democratic chairman and state Rep. Chris Redfern said the speech is a legislative event, not an administrative one....

Kasich must be trying to get names and numbers for his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, other people have noticed the massive Kasich prison failure----

CentralFloridaFuture (University of Central Florida):

When Corrections Corporation of America spent $72.7 million for one of Ohio’s facilities, Gov. John Kasich thought this would serve as a model for other states stuck in a financial slump. However, it seems that Kasich’s privatization solution has only worsened conditions inside and outside of the barbed wire.

Shortly after becoming the first state prison in the country to be sold to the private company CCA in 2011, Lake Erie Correctional Institution has failed to meet several standards. The most shocking being denial of medical care to prisoners. Among the other infractions were delayed doctor appointments, negligence of those requesting nurse visitations and the inability to accommodate inmates with conditions such as diabetes and AIDS.

Other violations included those as fundamental as running water, working toilets and proper beds. Some inmates were even found using plastic containers and bags as improvised toilets. Without enough beds to go around, prisoners were triple bunked and forced to sleep on mattresses on the prison floor.....

The article reveals even more of the failures at the prison and shows that privatization is risky for the community, families of prison guards, inmates, and everyone except the corporations.

Republicans MUST Do More

I stand with President Obama.

ChicagoTribune:

President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to try to push past the fiscal battles that plagued his first term - and still threaten his second - as he laid out an agenda he hopes will shape his legacy.

Obama's overarching message was that other things matter beside the Republicans' seemingly all-consuming drive for deficit cutting, embodied in a looming showdown just three weeks away over automatic across-the-board spending cuts.

Those other things, he told Congress, include some traditionally liberal causes, like raising the federal minimum wage and pursuing climate initiatives, and some that have gained bipartisan support, such as immigration reform and curbing gun violence....

Republicans MUST do more than.....

...harp about the deficit when they know that Bush's wars and tax cuts caused it.

....talk about businesses, and yet forget about unemployed/underemployed people.

....condemn every word that comes out of the President's mouth.

....target Social Security and Medicare for cuts, while protecting the wealthy.

....worship Ayn Rand, Karl Rove, and other egotistical loons.

....try to push women back to the Dark Ages, on work issues and reproductive rights.

....block nominees, judges, and other appointments.

.....go on Fox News and preach to their sheeple.

.....talk about supporting our troops, while they cut programs for veterans, and military families.

....delay, delay, and delay doing any work.

The Republicans cannot sit around on their fat wallets and do nothing. We're sick of it!

*     *     *

>>>>>>  How can I describe Marco Rubio's speech?

...sophomoric, a repeat of GOP talking points, not much.....
Marco Rubio's water-drinking will not be forgotten.

CBS News-

Voted Against VAWA

If someone votes against the bill that funds programs for abuse victims, does that mean that senator is against women getting help following abuse?  You decide.

The reauthorization of VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) passed this afternoon in the U.S. Senate.  There were Senators that voted against the bill, and their names are listed below:

U.S. Senate S.47 Vote#19:

NAYs ---22
Barrasso (R-WY) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Coburn (R-OK) Cornyn (R-TX) Cruz (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC)	Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Inhofe (R-OK) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (R-WI) Lee (R-UT) McConnell (R-KY) Paul (R-KY)	Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Thune (R-SD)

As women, we need to remind others that these Republicans voted against this important legislation.  You might want to note that the two Republicans that many in their party regard as their future leaders, Cruz and Rubio, voted against VAWA.

Congressional Districts

There has been lots of attention focused on Ohio's re-drawn congressional districts. The Ohio Republicans in power made certain that their latest scheme would guarantee the chance for them to never lose power.  Now there is some talk about looking at those districts and including input from a larger group of people.

PewStates:

Republicans controlled the redrawing of legislative and congressional district lines in Ohio over the last two years and, as the 2012 elections proved, that power paid off. Sometime soon, though, Ohio Republicans may help ensure that they never have that power again.

The Ohio Senate voted 32 to 1 in December to create a new commission to draw legislative and congressional districts. Under the plan, bipartisanship would be required. Maps would need five votes on the seven-member commission to pass, including at least one vote from the commission’s minority party.  “It seems we have as much bipartisan momentum to head in the same direction as we ever have,” says Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican and longtime supporter of redistricting changes.

Ironically, one reason for that momentum, supporters say, is that it’s the longest possible time before the changes would have any effect. Ohio won’t redistrict again until after the 2020 census....

We'll see how fast the Ohio Republicans move to the table to fix this.

The Trust Factor

People across Ohio are learning quickly that they cannot trust Gov. John Kasich. Kasich may have delivered an interesting speech in front of school leaders last week, but the truth always comes out eventually. Kasich will not improve funding to our schools.

Now newspapers across the state are reporting that a further examination of Kasich's education budget shows that richer school districts get more money, while poorer, more rural districts will see no increase in state money.  Here is a small list of Ohio media outlets that have revealed the ugly truth behind Kasich's school budget:

CantonRepository  FreemontNewsMessenger   PlainDealer  StowSentry  MarionStar 

AthensNews  ToledoBlade 


A news story from the PlainDealer indicates that Debe Terhar, President of the Ohio School Board, has not been removed from office.

Plain Dealer:

State school board President Debe Terhar retained her position today, after a vote by fellow board members on whether she should be removed over a recent Facebook post that seemed to compare President Barack Obama's gun control policies to Hitler. 

After hearing more than an hour of complaints about her post and statements in support of her, only six board members voted to remove Terhar as president, with 10 voting to keep her. Board member Mary Rose Oakar, of Cleveland, was the only Northeast Ohio representative who voted for Terhar's removal....

Terhar's future actions will be monitored by many people in Ohio as she and our governor try to destroy our public schools and build up charters.

What you should know about Kasich's budget

The Logan Daily News has more info on Gov. John Kasich budget:


If Gov. John Kasich’s plan for the biannual budget is approved, the Logan-Hocking School District will not receive additional funding for Fiscal Year 2014 or 2015, but will match their totals from FY 2013. This could leave the LHSD to face a deficit of $1.1 million for FY 2015 under the most recent financial analysis conducted by LHSD Treasurer Paul Shaw.

If approved in its current form, the LHSD will be receiving $18,014,155 in funding from the state for each FY 2014 and FY 2015, which is the same amount received in FY 2013.

Shaw said he was disappointed with the news, and noted that of all the school districts in 12 Appalachian counties — including Hocking County — none will receive a funding increase under Kasich’s proposed budget....

Gov. John Kasich is setting up some of the poorer school districts in the state to fail. Kasich's supporters in Americans for Prosperity must be so proud of him. The rest of us in Ohio should look for a Democratic challenger for Kasich. We cannot continue on this dangerous path that Kasich is taking.

Privatize, Privatize, Privatize!

Come one, come all! Gov. John Kasich wants to privatize everything!!! 

From the Republican-loving, Kasich-worshipping, Columbus Dispatch, we have this item:

The job of preparing and serving more than 150,000 meals a day to inmates in Ohio’s adult and juvenile prisons could be turned over to a private company, saving taxpayers $16.2 million annually under a Kasich administration plan.

A request for proposals will go out today for a privatized joint food-service contract for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Department of Youth Services. The adult prisons estimate saving $15 million a year, while youth prisons calculate a $1.2 million annual reduction.

Up to 456 state jobs could be lost, but many employees could be offered positions with the private contractor, officials at both agencies said. Exactly how many jobs that would be is unknown.....

Are there Republican contributors that would fit the bill in providing food services to Ohio's prisons?  Would those 456 state workers be offered the same pay, and benefits that they currently have? Is this John Kasich's way of decimating unions in the state by slowly privatizing various agencies and departments?

• • • • • 

Now, some of the school leaders in Ohio that thought they were getting more from the governor's new budget have been able to separate the facts from Kasich's b.s.

Dispatch:

......New figures released by Kasich’s administration this week show that 60 percent of school districts, including a number of poor districts, would get no additional funding despite the governor’s pledge that they would get more aid and wealthy districts would get less.

“I almost think it’s going the other direction. It’s like the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer,” said Brad Miller, treasurer of the Dawson-Bryant School District in southern Ohio’s Lawrence County.....

“No, I don’t look at those because it’s the philosophy that matters,” Kasich said after a town-hall meeting with business professionals in Dayton to promote his tax proposals. “And to look at a (computer) run and yank out one part of it distorts the whole purpose of it. … We said we were going to fund the school system on the basis of dollars following pupils.”

I'm no rocket scientist, but I can clearly see that Kasich's philosophy is certainly more important than funding the education of our children. Is there something more behind this? If poorer districts receive less, and less money, does that mean that it would be easier for corporate charter schools to move into these areas and take over?

Mother Jones magazine noted that a Michigan Americans for Prosperity member had the following comments about charter schools:

Among the AFP set, reforming public schools usually means converting them into non-union, privately-run charter schools. Nationally, AFP is a vocal proponent of charters and "school choice." And at the Michigan citizens training, one of the featured speakers, Norm Hughes, a member of the North Oakland Tea Party Patriots, offered this take on charters:

Kids aren't going to charter schools if they're "A" students. They go to charter schools because they're failing students and, by and large, the charter schools have a higher percentage of poor families, ethnically challenged families…

Ethnically challenged? Hughes did not explain what he meant, but you won't find that take on charters anywhere in the AFP literature. (Listen here to the audio of Hughes' comment, grabbed by Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group.)...


Fairness? Equality? Publicly-funded equal education? Apparently, some on the right are definitely against such things.

Philosophy?

Wouldn't you like accurate information from Gov. John Kasich?  Apparently, it doesn't matter to him.

Dispatch:

A week after rolling out a sweeping revamp of how Ohio funds schools, Gov. John Kasich said he still has not seen any material detailing how much state money each of Ohio’s 612 school districts would receive under his plan.
He hasn’t seen the numbers –which show that 368 school districts would get no additional money over two years – but defended a comment he made last week pertaining to the amounts of state dollars allocated to rich and poor districts.
“No I don’t look at those because it’s the philosophy that matters,” Kasich said following a town-hall meeting with business professionals in Dayton to promote his tax proposals. “And to look at a run and yank out one part of it distorts the whole purpose of it. … We said we were going to fund the school system on the basis of dollars following pupils.” 


Isn't that special? John Kasich doesn't care how much your particular school district loses in his budget "...because it's the philosophy that matters..." It doesn't matter that the schools in your neighborhood have to lay off teachers, because John Kasich is more interested in promoting his far right, anti-public school "philosophy" which aims to hand the education of our young people to greedy, corporate, charter school owners.


What Kasich fails to realize is that we care more about our children's education than his misguided "philosophy" that he is pushing.  Gov. Kasich should take a look at how his "philosophy" is going to hurt our public schools, but it appears that he just doesn't care.


You can see the budget and the money that the state will give to each district here. More than half of the school districts in Ohio are getting an zero increase in state funding.

Kasich's Budget Hurts

While some in Ohio are happy about the prospect of Gov. John Kasich lowering state income tax, a majority of people will notice that there are some ugly details in the new budget.

No matter what John Kasich may say, a majority of school districts in Ohio will not receive an increase in state funding. Kasich had cut education funding in his first budget, and now some will get nothing additional.

Here is the list that provides the amount of money that will be provided to each school district. Please note the last column provides the percentage of increase in funding:

Here are a few examples from the list:

...Cleveland Hts‐Univ Cleveland.......0% increase
Clinton‐Massie.......0% increase
Cloverleaf Local SD.......0% increase
Clyde‐Green Springs Ex Vill.......0% increase
Coldwater Ex Vill SD.......0% increase
College Corner Local SD.......0% increase...

Please keep in mind that Gov. Kasich has proposed (1) expanding the charter schools, and
(2) giving more money to charter schools, including extra money for facilities. Charter schools in Ohio are not helping students, but they are helping the corporate owners make huge profits. 

Can Ohio afford another term of John Kasich as governor? I know we can't.

Most Schools Won't Get More

* If you live in Ohio, under Gov. John Kasich, you'll have more school levies in your future.  The Lancaster Eagle Gazette has the cold, hard truth about Kasich's latest budget scheme:

Gov. John Kasich’s school funding plan dramatically changes the state funding formula for districts, but most Ohio schools would see no increase in money under the proposal.

The governor this past week announced a plan to spend $7.4 billion in the 2013-14 fiscal year and $7.7 billion in the 2014-15 fiscal year— up from the $6.9 billion being spent in the current 2012-13 fiscal year. Data released Wednesday shows that increased funding would be concentrated in less than half of all Ohio schools....

Lancaster Eagle Gazette provided this info:

School funding influence

Here is a look at how the governor’s education budget would affect local school districts.

District	Total budget for fiscal year 2014	Funding increase	Percent increase	Dollars per student
Amanda-Clearcreek Local	$8,337,229	$0	0	$5,127
Berne Union Local	$3,048,604	$0	0	$3,764
Bloom Carroll Local	$2,587,570	$0	0	$1,599
Fairfield Union Local	$8,041,992	$0	0	$4,390
Lancaster City	$21,324,404	$2,823,155	15.26	$3,307
Liberty Union-Thurston Local	$5,051,538	$0	0	$3,677
Pickerington Local	$40,128,207	$0	0	$3,928
Walnut Township Local	$1,187,198	$0	0	$2,016

Source: Ohio Office of Budget and Management

As more details emerge about the new Kasich budget, Ohioans have to realize that in the end the middle class will lose.

It Begins

* The new budget proposed by Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich will hurt us even more.
Plunderbund:

According to Policy Matters Ohio, Kasich’s first budget stole ONE BILLION DOLLARS from local governments – much of it from the Local Government Fund (LGF).....

....Governor Strickland’s 2010/2011 budget provided over $1.3 Billion to the LGF – money that had long been used by local communities to pay for vital services like police and fire.

Kasich’s first budget reduced that to $942 million.  His new budget proposal would further reduce it to just $740 million.  (see page D-503)...

Cuts to police and fire, endangers our lives and our communities.

••••••••

Did Republican Rep. Eric Cantor plagiarize President Obama's speech?  It certainly sounded like it!  Politicsusa has the comparison. MSNBC has the video: 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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* The dumping of toxic chemicals has happened again.

WFMJ:

A Valley lawmaker is demanding answers to important questions, after tens of thousands of gallons of oil and oilfield waste are dumped into a storm drain. Waste that has now found its way into the Mahoning River.

On Monday, the EPA and Ohio Department of Natural Resources continued directing the containment and clean-up. 

State Representative Bob Hagan says it's now estimated that up to 40,000 gallons of oil and oilfield waste has been dumped into a storm drain at 2761 Salt Springs Road. Property owned by D&L Energy.....

Ohio's environment will never be the same now that the drilling and dumping has started.

President Obama

President Obama continues to work on gun control and preventing future attacks like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Here is a related news item----

TheHill:

President Obama will posthumously award the Presidential Citizens Medal to the six teachers and administrators who died in December's Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting.

The president will present the awards next Friday to the surviving family members at a ceremony at the White House, the Connecticut Post reported Tuesday.

The six recipients include Dawn Hochsprung, the Sandy Hook Elementary principal, and Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist. Four teachers — Rachel D'Avino, Lauren Rousseau, Anne Murphy and Victoria Soto — were also slain in the attack, along with 20 schoolchildren......

Those brave women gave their lives trying to protect those children. Teachers are some of the strongest and most courageous people. It is a shame that some people continue to disrespect the dedication that teachers show in their profession.

* The President presents his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, February 12th, according to the White House website.  Hopefully, the Republicans will behave themselves this time and act appropriately.

Not Voting for Research?

If you were an elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives, would you vote for this legislation?

Clerk of House of Representatives: 
H R 225      2/3 YEA-AND-NAY      4-Feb-2013      6:53 PM
QUESTION:  On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass
BILL TITLE: To amend title IV of the Public Health Service Act to provide for a National Pediatric Research Network, including with respect to pediatric rare diseases or conditions.

Unfortunately, some Republicans in the U.S. House voted against this legislation. What kind of  human being votes against a National Pediatric Research Network to keep track of pediatric rare diseases or conditions?

Amash Bridenstine Broun (GA) Conaway Cotton Duncan (SC) Foxx Gohmert Graves (GA)

Hudson Huizenga (MI) Labrador Lummis Marchant Massie McClintock Mullin Neugebauer

Poe (TX) Radel Ribble Rohrabacher Stockman Stutzman Weber (TX) Woodall Yoho

These people are complete jerks.

"...teach two or three classes (at the same time).."

This past week, Gov. Kasich revealed his plan in "reforming" education in Ohio.
 Columbus Dispatch----

...At Cincinnati’s Taft Information Technology High School yesterday, Kasich confirmed that the $300 million “Straight-A Fund” within his two-year, $15.1 billion education plan was what he was referring to last month when he said school districts would have more flexibility to incentivize teacher pay.

But the Straight-A Fund is a one-time pool of money over the next two years to incentivize schools to improve education and lower costs. So how could a district add pay boosters for teachers and reduce costs in the same Straight-A-Fund proposal?

“For example, you could pay a really quality teacher to teach two or three classes (at the same time), which really saves you money and yet rewards a teacher who’s really excellent,” Kasich said yesterday....

This is just impossible to forget. If I'm a really highly-qualified teacher, I could get an extra $100/year to teach classes of 75-90 students? How is that a reward?

Kasich was an instructor at Ohio State for a few years where he collected $50,000/year for one to two hours of work per month. He had his buddy serve as his assistant. Now compare that to the real world where there are 25 to 30 students in a classroom. The governor wants the "highly qualified" teachers to teach 2-3 classes at the same time. Will the governor be grading papers for those 75-90 students?

Teachers across Ohio need to let Kasich and his corporate charter school buddies know that they are clueless about education.

Money to Be Removed from Public Schools

*  With the voucher expansion program being promoted by Gov. Kasich, public schools would lose money, according to the DaytonDailyNews:

....Following up on the implementation of the new Report Card and Third Grade Reading Guarantee, if students in K-3 fail – or fail to progress in reading – they will be eligible for school vouchers.

“The expansion related to the Third Grade Reading Guarantee would be deducted from the resident district in the same way that the EdChoice program currently operates,” Lynch said, adding the vouchers would be $4,250 for K-8 and $5,000 for 9-12.

Some public officials are concerned about the potential impact expanding the program further could have on public schools......

Poor schools which generally have the most voucher requests will lose more money. Then the non-public schools grow, and FOK (the Friends of Kasich) involved in charter schools will make profits. 

The Third Grade Reading Guarantee could be a real hot potato considering the lack of input from real experts on the "guarantee" promoted by Kasich. I'm very interested in seeing how people who have no educational classroom background, no experience teaching reading, and little interest in working with classroom teachers can guarantee reading success through a program created by outsiders.

***  Did anyone else notice that some of the glowing comments Gov. Kasich got on his "online townhall" meeting came from those associated with charter school promoters and corporate operators of schools. Look over the twitter response from #OHEdu and the names of those who gave good grades to Kasich's latest plan to destroy public schools. The positive comments have some ties to charter schools and "education" think tanks. Teachers, of course, were not invited to participate because we all know that Gov. Kasich still holds a grudge against Ohio's teachers.

Prison Riot in Ohio Private Prison

* Have you heard about the prison riot at one of Ohio's prisons? Once again, the good people at Plunderbund have the story with all the details:

When a series of fights broke out at the Lake Erie Corrections Institution last week, the company that operates the prison, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was forced to call Special Response Teams (SRTs) from the state of Ohio for assistance....

...To assist CCA in Friday’s disturbance at the prison in Conneaut, Ohio,  two special response teams from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections were dispatched – one from Trumbull Correctional Institution  and one from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.   The teams transported 41 inmates from LECI to the Mansfield Correctional Institution, where previously closed unit was opened to house the men.....

...CCA’s inability to handle the disturbance that occurred last Friday further adds to our concerns that in a rush to privatize state assets, the Governor has put the safety of the employees and prisoners at LECI and the citizens of Conneaut at serious risk.

This type of event also puts the public in danger.

Why?

After Gov. John Kasich's big online townhall meeting that excluded people he did not want (public school teachers), the whole thing should be examined.  Kasich plans to expand the voucher program, and give more money to charter schools. For a majority of Ohioans it seems like a bad investment since charter schools do not perform as well as public schools.

InnovationOhio:

.....According to a recent analysis by the Kasich Administration’s own Department of Education, traditional public schools spend an average of $10,111 per pupil, while brick-and-mortar Charters spend an average of $10,165. In other words, (non-E-school) Charters cost $54 more per pupil than traditional schools. At the same time —according to the state’s “Performance Index Score”— Charters, on average, rank in the bottom 8% of all public schools in student performance.


The irony is obvious. When Charter schools first burst on the scene in Ohio a decade and a half ago, advocates promised they would deliver a better education at a lower cost. Now, 15 years and nearly $6 billion in taxpayer money later, the exact opposite is true: Charters are delivering a worse education at a higher cost.

Why Charters spend more per pupil is a mystery. They pay teachers about 40% less than traditional schools, they have no busing costs to contend with, and they’re exempt from roughly 200 different state regulations that traditional schools must pay to comply with....

Gee. It makes you wonder where all that extra money goes. Hmmmmm.

Charter schools are often located in non-traditional buildings, such as church basements, converted gas stations, empty stores/businesses in shopping centers, etc. Children use borrowed/used standard folding table and chairs, and often have no playground.  Charter school teachers complain that they lack books, computers, and materials to provide proper programs of study. Often times, those in leadership positions in the charter schools have no education background and know little about child psychology or school administration. But don't worry! John Kasich and his charter school supporters/campaign contributors think that having an education background might be a hindrance. Besides, if teachers are paid according to their experience, college degrees, and accomplishments, charter school owners could not make such huge profits and be able to contribute millions of dollars to Republicans!

It is gross, and immoral that Kasich and FOK (friends of Kasich) think corporations should make profits off of school children. How do these charter school owners extract so much profit from our tax money that goes to charter schools? Children and taxpayers are being cheated in order for corporations to profit.