1)  Election 2006 Update:
According to the Secretary of State's web site there are a total of 1,949 local issues on the November 7, 2006 ballot.  These include 50 Bond Issues (46 are also school issues); 1,017 Tax Issues (145 are also school issues); and 98 tax changes (50 of which are school income tax changes).  To view a list of these ballot issues please visit http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/ElectionsVoter/CurrentElection.aspx?Section=2001 .

Four seats on the State Board of Education are also being contested on November 7, 2006.  The State Board of Education has a membership of 19:  11 members are elected for a four-year term, and 8 members are appointed by the Governor for a four-year term.  Members are limited to two terms, and the terms are staggered so that some terms expire in 2006 and others in 2008.  The elected members represent districts composed of three state Senate Districts.  The elected seats that are open this year are in District 2 (currently represented by Martha Wise, who is running for a seat in the Ohio Senate, District 13); District 3 (currently represented by Thomas Gunlock, who was appointed by Governor Taft to fill the vacancy when State Board member John Griffin passed away); District 4 (currently represented by Sam Schloemer); District 7 (currently represented by Deborah Owens Fink); and District 8 (currently represented by Jim Craig).  Appointed members whose terms expire on December 31, 2006 include Board members Richard Baker, Stephen Millett, Jennifer Sheets, and Carl Wick.

2)  Meetings this Week:
*The Ohio Educator Standards Board committees will meet on October 23, 2006 at 5:30 PM at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Columbus, OH, 2700 Corporate Exchange Drive.
*The Ohio Educator Standards Board on October 24, 2006 at 9:00 PM at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Columbus, OH, 2700 Corporate Exchange Drive.

3)  New Report Released on Charter School Accountability: 
Policy Matters Ohio released on October 16, 2006 a report on charter schools called "Limited Accountability:  Financial Reporting at White Hat Charter Schools" by Zach Schiller.  The report includes an analysis of the financial reports of the 31 charter schools operated by White Hat Management.  Overall the report found that the state rules, as currently enforced, do not require expenditure information to be broken down in a way that provides adequate information to the public about how public money is being spent at these charter schools, in comparison to the reporting mechanisms required for traditional public schools.  The researchers found, for example, that White Hat Management reported in 2004-2005 a percentage of the expenditures as "overhead".  These expenditures were not itemized, making it impossible to determine what services were purchased, the cost of the services, and who provided the services.  For Life Skills schools, operated by White Hat, "overhead" expenditures represented 25.8 percent; salary and wages represented 27.9 percent; and contracted services another 22.8 percent of expenditures.  Traditional public schools are required to break down categories of spending for  instructional staff, professional development, data processing, expenditures for students with disabilities, health, counseling, etc.

This analysis also found that charter schools are not included in three major tracking documents for public schools located on the ODE web site:  school district profiles; per pupil revenue and expenditures; and the five year forecasts.  These sites provide data on student demographics, spending by function, teacher salaries, experience of teachers, revenue by sources, and student performance.  They provide a convenient way to compare how public schools are doing, but charter schools are not included in this data.  Instead, the ODE reports data on charter schools separately in an annual report and reports through the Office of Community Schools, making it difficult to compare charter school data with school district data. 

As a result of this investigation the report includes the following recommendations:

·         Management companies that operate charter schools should be required to break out their spending in the same fashion as traditional public schools.

·         The auditor of the state should regularly audit operators of charter schools, and be able to compel production of records from a school or its operator.

·         School operators should be subject to the public records law, as are charter schools and traditional public schools.

·         The state should conduct a top-to-bottom review of compliance and reporting requirements to strengthen them and ensure that operators of charter schools are reporting basic financial data.  "Proposals to significantly expand charter-school funding without such accountability should be rejected."  Such a recommendation was included in a report released last week by charter school advocates called "Turning the Corner to Quality".  This report recommends that charter schools receive for each student a per pupil amount that equals the per pupil expenditure of the district of residence of the charter school student, and state funding for facilities.

·         The Ohio Department of Education should make available on it web site data from charter schools in the same fashion as traditional public schools.

Policy Matters Ohio is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute with offices in Cleveland and Columbus.  The report is available at www.policymattersohio.org

4)  Review of Secondary and Postsecondary Programs:
The American Youth Policy Forum released a report in September 2006 called "The College Ladder: Linking Secondary and Postsecondary Education for Success for All Students" by Jennifer Brown Lerner and Betsy Brand.  This report includes reviews of twenty-two programs that provide high school students with opportunities to earn college credit.  The report also describes the characteristics of effective programs.  The report notes that research on the success of these programs is limited, but there is some evidence that these programs benefit students.  To read the full report please visit http://www.aypf.org/publications/The%20College%20Ladder/TheCollegeLadderlinkingsecondaryandpostsecondaryeducation.pdf

5)  Tool Kit to Promote Opportunity: 
The Opportunity Agenda, Alan Jenkins Executive Director, is a communications, research, and advocacy organization dedicated to building the national will to expand opportunity in America.  The Center has developed a tool kit called "American Opportunity: A Communications Toolkit", which includes "...tips and techniques for building the national will to expand opportunity for all."  According to the Opportunity Agenda, opportunity is the idea that everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from, should have a fair chance at reaching their full potential. Their research has found that including messages about opportunity is a positive way to communicate messages in support of social change.  For more information about the Tool Kit please visit http://www.opportunityagenda.org/site/c.mwL5KkN0LvH/b.1616947/k.A4CE/Advocates_Toolkit.htm

6)  Speak Out for Ohio Schools: 
A coalition of education and civic organizations called Speak Out for Ohio Schools recently held meetings throughout the state to identify education priorities to share with the gubernatorial candidates.  Speak Out for Ohio Schools includes the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Ohio Education Association, Ohio Federation of Teachers, and Communities for Quality Education, a national advocacy organization founded in 2004 to support public schools.  The following priorities were identified at these meetings:

In Toledo the top priorities were:

·         Holding Ohio's next governor accountable for making education his top priority;

·         Assessing and supporting the needs of the whole child;

·         A fair funding formula that provides adequate resources and provides for local control and an end to unfunded mandates;

·         Using consistent and equal measures to evaluate public, private and charter schools; and

·         Development of career technology programs to prepare young people who don't go on to college for success .

In Cincinnati the top priorities were:

·         The leadership and commitment to making education the first priority for Ohio;

·         Accountable policies to address the needs of students challenged by socioeconomic circumstances; and

·         Long term solutions to Ohio's over reliance on property taxes to fund public education.

In Columbus the top priorities were:

·         Make public education your first priority by ensuring and funding a high-quality, comprehensive education for all children.

·         Invest in early childhood education.

·         Increase parental involvement in new, innovative ways.

·         Stop funding charter schools & vouchers with taxpayer dollars.

·         Ensure equitable facilities for all Ohio's children.

In Youngstown the top priorities were:

·         Make education the #1 priority and remember schools after November.

·         Make all schools accountable to the same standards.

·         Fix funding to be equitable with local discretion.

·         Address issues of poverty.

·         Incorporate best practices in student assessment.

To learn more about Speak Out for Ohio's Schools, please visit http://www.speakoutohio.org/index.php .

7) Symposium on Charter Schools and Teachers Unions: 
The recommendations of a symposium hosted by National Charter School Research Project (Center on Reinventing Public Education) and the Progressive Policy Institute in May 2006 are included in a report called "The Future of Charter Schools and Teachers Unions: Results of a Symposium".  The authors of the report are Paul T. Hill, Lydia Rainey, and Andrew J. Rotherham.  The report summarizes the current state of controversy between charter school proponents and teachers unions:

·         Charter school and teachers union leaders are deeply divided by the metaphors they use and by their institutional histories.

·         Each side assumes that the other is defined by the views of its most extreme members.

·         Leaders on both sides agree on many attributes of a good school.

·         Each side thinks the other insists on something that interferes with quality teaching.

·         The two sides' disagreements are exacerbated by conflicting beliefs about questions of fact that could be resolved empirically.

The report is available at http://www.ncsrp.org/cs/csr/print/csr_docs/pubs/charter_unions.html .

8)  Support for Music Education: 
The October 2006 issue of the American Educator features two articles supporting music education.  The first, "The Neglected Muse:  Why Music Is an Essential Liberal Art" by Peter Kalkavage, explains why music is an important part of students' lives, and needs to be in the school curriculum.  According to the author, students need to listen and create music; understand music's connections to math and nature; understand how music shapes human beings; and understand how music cultivates an appreciation of the arts and critical thinking.   "In the breadth of its domain, in its union of the mathematical and the poetic, and in its involvement of the whole human being (body, heart, and mind), music is an essential liberating art."

A second article is an interview with Wynton Marsalis called, "Wynton Marsalis on America's Musical Classics".  In this interview, Wynton Marsalis explains why music education is so important.  The following are quotes by Wynton Marsalis from the interview:

·         "One ideal that music teaches us is how to get along with others."

·         "...music teaches us the language of expressions."

·         "Music has always been the heart of our national identity."

·         "The power of great music is timeless.  That's why is remains such an indispensable tool for teaching our youngsters.  What's more, music is one of the few things that transcends the boundaries of race, class, religion, and geography that too often divide us."

·         "Over the past 20 years, I've seen a generation of Americans who are culturally ignorant, who lack a basic connection to, and an understanding of, the arts--of music, of theatre, of dance, and of the visual arts.  I also see a government that is just unwilling to invest in turning this situation around.  And in a nation that's as rich in culture and dollars as ours, that's truly unacceptable."

The American Educator is a publication of the National Federation of Teachers, and these articles are available at http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/fall2006/index.htm

9)  Bills introduced the week of October 16-20, 2006:

HB671 (Webster) - School Treasurers:  Revises the laws on the employment of school district and educational service center treasurers.