To:

To: LWVO
From: Joan Platz
Education Update for September 4, 2006

1) 126th Ohio General Assembly:
Both the Ohio House and Senate have tentative legislative sessions scheduled for September 12 & 13, 2006. At this time the Ohio Senate has posted an agenda for September 12, 2006. For information please visit: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/senate_calendar.cfm

The Ohio House and Senate do not have sessions scheduled for October, but sessions are scheduled for November 14, 15, 16, 28, 29, 30, and December 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, & 21. Leadership in both the House and Senate may cancel any of these sessions.

2) Gubernatorial Debates:
The following debates have been scheduled between candidates for Ohio Governor, J. Kenneth Blackwell and Ted Strickland. The debate scheduled for September 20, 2006 in Cleveland will focus on the topic of education.

*September 5, 2006 in Youngstown at 12:00 noon, hosted by the Youngstown Vindicator and WFMJ-TV. Topic: OPEN
*September 20, 2006 in Cleveland at 12:00 noon, hosted by WEWS-TV and the Call & Post. Topic: EDUCATION
*October 4, 2006 in Cincinnati at 7:00 PM, hosted by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Debate USA Alliance. Topic: ECONOMY
*Tentative as of September 1, 2006: October 16, 2006 in Columbus at 7:00 PM. Topic: OPEN.

3) Back to School Factsheet:
An estimated 55 million students will attend elementary and secondary schools this fall in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released a factsheet for "Back to School: 2006 - 2007" on August 16, 2006. Other interesting facts included in the factsheet follow:

*68 percent of students attend Kindergarten all day.
*54 percent of 3-4 year olds attend school.
*12 percent of students are enrolled in private schools.
*41 percent of students in school are minorities.
*5 percent of students are foreign born, and 22 percent have at least one parent who is foreign born.
*29 million students participate in the national school lunch program.
*17.6 million students are enrolled in the nation's colleges and universities.
*21 percent of high school students were employed in 2004.
*1.1 million students are home schooled.
*$8,287 was spent per pupil nationally on elementary and secondary education in 2004.

For more Back to School Facts please visit http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/007108.html

4) Report on Poverty and Income Released:
The U.S. Census Bureau released on August 29, 2006 a report called "Income, Poverty, and

Healthcare Coverage in the United States: 2005". This report includes data collected from surveys to supplement the 2000 Census. According to the press release, 37 million people in the U.S. (12.6 percent) were living below the poverty level in 2005. This percentage is unchanged from 2004. The average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2005 was $19,971; for a family of three, $15,577; for a family of two, $12,755; and for unrelated individuals, $9,973. The median household income in the U.S. rose 1.1 percent to $46,326.

The percentage of individuals without health insurance rose from 15.6 percent to 15.9 percent or 46.6 million people, and number of uninsured children increased between 2004 and 2005 from 10.8 percent (7.9 million children) to 11.2 percent (8.3 million children).

According to the press release 174.8 million people were covered by employment-based health insurance. That represents a decline from 59.8 percent to 59.5 percent. The number of people covered by government health programs increased from 79.4 million to 80.2 million between 2004-2005, but the percentage remained at 27.3 percent. The number of people covered by Medicaid was 38.1 million (13.0 percent).

Median income levels in Ohio dropped from $45,340 in 2004 to $44,349 in 2005. The poverty rate in Ohio increased from 11.6 percent in 2004 to 12.3 percent in 2005. Cleveland was also designated as the nation's poorest city.

These reports are available at: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/income05.html and follow the links.

5) What do Children Need?
Voices for Children of Greater Cleveland and the United Way are sponsoring community briefings to discuss issues that will affect children in the FY2008-2009 Ohio state budget. The topics that will be discussed include health, early care, juvenile justice, K-12 education, child welfare and the economy. The briefings are open to the public, but registration is required. Five briefings were held in August, and two are scheduled in September. One will be held in Nelsonville on September 8, 2006 and another in Toledo on September 14, 2006. For more information about the community briefings please contact Mary Wachtel at 614.225.9073 or email mary.wachtel@voicesforclevelandschildren.org.

6) Early Childhood Education and Care Recommendations:
The School Readiness Solutions Group, chaired by Carl Kohrt, CEO of Battelle, released on August 25, 2006 ten recommendations for creating and sustaining high quality learning experiences for young children in Ohio in a report called "From the Beginning, Firm Footing for

Children, Families and Schools". The Solutions Group was created by the State Board of Education in June 2005 to develop recommendations for a high quality early education and care system for children and families in Ohio. State Board members Steve Millett and Eric Okerson

served as liaisons for the Solutions Group as it has worked with hundreds of stakeholders over the past year to develop and fine tune recommendations to improve the quality of early education and care settings; improve the quality and quantity of professional care givers; improve access to high quality early learning experiences; help parents prepare their children for a lifetime of learning; create a reliable funding system for early education and care experiences; and strengthen the accountability of early learning and care opportunities. The recommendations are expected to be part of the State Board of Education's FY08-09 budget recommendations, and

will be discussed at the September 2006 meeting of the State Board of Education. To review the final report or a summary please visit http://www.schoolreadiness.ohio.gov/ and follow the links to the report.

7) How are Charter Schools Performing?
A national study called "A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling," released on August 28, 2006 by the National Center for Education Statistics, finds that fourth grade students in traditional public schools performed better on the 2003 National Assessment of Education Progress in math and reading than students attending publicly financed but privately run charter schools. The report is available on-line at www.nces.ed.gov.

8) Education Commission of the States (ECS) Focuses on Arts Education:
"The Arts: A Lifetime of Learning" has been the focus of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has served as chairman of the Education Commission of the States for the past two years. Through this initiative the ECS has created several resources to support policy makers who want to learn more about the impact of arts education on overall student academic achievement, closing the achievement gaps among groups of students, motivating students to stay in school and learn, and the role of arts education and creativity in our national economy. The ECS web site now includes a special section on arts education, with research reports on arts education topics, and data bases on arts education policies in the U.S. For more information please visit http://www.ecs.org and follow the links to arts education.

9) Bills Introduced:
SB 348 School Growth (Stivers):
Creates the Rapid Enrollment Growth School Facilities Assistance Program.

HB 651 Property Taxes for Seniors (McGregor):
Freezes taxes on primary residences owned and occupied by low income persons age 65 or older.