Governor Kasich recently hosted a Virtual Town Hall to explain his proposed education funding and plan to lift student achievement around the entire state. Toward the second half, he and a panel of education leaders also took questions from Ohioans via Facebook and Twitter.
Here is the recorded broadcast in case you weren’t able to tune in:
Original video can be viewed from the Ohio Channel here.
Governor Kasich was in Adams County at West Union High School to promote H.B. 93 and the bipartisan effort to fight prescription drug abuse. The Columbus Dispatch has more below about the event and the reaction from local teachers:
WEST UNION, Ohio – On paper, it shaped up to be a lion’s den moment for Gov. John Kasich.
The governor spoke at West Union High School in southern Ohio yesterday, where many of the school’s 40 teachers are, like most public educators in the state, concerned about, leery of or opposed to Senate Bill 5 and other plans that Kasich has for public education.
The Republican governor is usually greeted by at least a few protesters at most of his public-speaking engagements. But when he was introduced in the West Union gymnasium, nary a catcall was heard nor an anti-Senate Bill5 poster found.
Instead, the governor was welcomed with thunderous applause and a standing ovation from most of the school’s students, and with polite applause from school administrators, community business professionals, and, yes, teachers.
Kasich was there to speak about prescription-drug abuse – which teachers and administrators agree is a huge problem in Adams County that has affected many of the families of children who attend West Union.
And
Mandy Lynch, an eighth-grade science teacher (the West Union High building includes grades 7 through 12), acknowledged that Senate Bill 5 is “really a hot issue down here,” but she said Kasich’s message on drug awareness was too important.
“I can’t speak for everyone else, but for me, today was about something entirely different,” Lynch said. “It doesn’t seem like the appropriate time to bring up Senate Bill 5.”
Joe Kramer, a business-finance teacher of 25 years, added: “This school belongs to the kids and the community. I’m not going to bring out my personal political beliefs in such a building.”
More than 10 other teachers approached by The Dispatch declined to comment, some citing fear of retribution for negative remarks. The district is in contract negotiations with its teachers union.
You can read the entire article here.
Raising the level of Ohio’s education system is a top priority for Gov. Kasich and you can read more below from the Columbus Dispatch about the need to better assess educators and ensure that our children are getting the best education possible:
Effective teachers are the most valuable education asset that Ohio (or any state) has. Statistics don’t lie when it comes to their impact on children’s learning. Stanford economist Eric Hanushek, who recently testified before a joint hearing of the Ohio House and Senate education committees, reports that “having a high-quality teacher throughout elementary school can substantially offset or even eliminate the disadvantage of low socio-economic background.” Similarly, a weak teacher can blight a child’s prospects.
And
Gov. John Kasich’s budget and the recently enacted Senate Bill 5 seek to move the state toward evaluations that identify the impact of individual instructors on student learning, in order to inform decisions around retention, pay, hiring and dismissal. This is a huge opportunity to raise the needle on student achievement. But Ohio has to get the details right. Systems that measure and reward performance are still at the pilot stage, and no jurisdiction has yet developed a perfect system.
And
Creating better teacher-evaluation systems in Ohio is not as daunting as some would have us think. The key will be to encourage district and teacher participation. Don’t wait for the state to do it – and don’t expect to create a one-size-fits-all evaluation system to cover every local circumstance. Instead, press districts to come up with systems that incorporate common data elements from the state while also incorporating measures such as expert and peer evaluations, building- and district-level performance metrics, and even student evaluations.
Ohio is well-positioned to lead the nation in the development of high-quality teacher-evaluation systems. It has many of the necessary pieces already in place and it has the political momentum to get this done. Now is the time to do it.
You can read the entire editorial here.
Governor John Kasich speaks with Fox’s Gretta Van Susteren about Ohio’s economy and how we must set the environment for businesses to come to our state and create jobs. You can watch below:
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