Today

*** Today we salute and honor our veterans.  We must do more to help our vets find jobs, housing, and speed up the health care they need. Words are nice, but we have got to actively assist them to get what they need and what they deserve. 

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***  There seems to be a lot of negatives surrounding Ohio Gov. John Kasich. People are concerned about the lack of real jobs in the state, Kasich's drastic funding cuts to education, his total disregard for women's rights, and his lack of respect for the people that make Ohio function--- police, firefighters, nurses, teachers, and the middle class.

Examiner:

....Friday's release of a poll by Public Policy Polling [PPP], ranked among the top rated polling outfits in the nation, shows Gov. Kasich no longer trails Ed FitzGerald, his Democratic challenger for governor next year, by three points—38-35 from an August poll—but is now tied with FitzGerald at 41 all, shows Kasich stumbling a year in advance of what many analysts believe is an election he should win but can lose in many ways....

.....Kasich has long complained about the so-called "headwinds from Washington," but what was learned from last Tuesday's elections is that more and more voters attribute those headwinds to GOP forces that have sought to undermine the White House at every turn. The disapproval rating for Republicans in general and the Tea Party in particular, have given renewed hope to Democrats that they can retake the U.S. The house next year, which if Democrats can retain their majority in the Senate would deliver a death blow to the GOP as a party and to many of its outspoken spokesman, like Gov. Kasich, who ran and won with the help of Tea Party activists in 2010 but who now find themselves in disfavor as the nation struggles to move forward from a Great Recession caused in large part by debts and deficits run up under Republicans when they controlled the White House and Congress for years under President George W. Bush.....

As the Examiner article notes, Ohio is 44th in job growth.

Kasich and his Republicans are out of touch with the American people.  The Republican Party has  spent much of the time trying to harm the poor, deny health care for the uninsured, attacking women's reproductive rights, and denying children a proper, strong education. These are not positive steps. The Republicans and their draconian ideas may have been popular several centuries ago, but we need progress.

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Ohio's charter schools are performing far below traditional public schools. As Plunderbund points out, the Republicans who've written the laws and rules concerning charters have exempted them from certain educational requirements. Every teacher, parent, and public school advocate should read the entire article at Plunderbund. Here is a sample-----

 Plunderbund:

....Last year, the Ohio Legislative Service Commission (LSC), a nonpartisan agency that provides drafting, fiscal, research, training, and other technical services to the General Assembly, published a brief titled Education Laws and Community Schools.  In that brief, they document over 150 references to Ohio Revised Code that don’t apply to charters, but which all public school districts must follow.
On the opening page of the brief, the LSC states it simply:

Community schools are exempt from many of the education laws of the state...

I only have two words for that ---- Holy cow! This article explains why charters are doing so poorly--- they are exempt from the same requirements and guidelines used in traditional public schools.