The State of Education in Ohio

Matt Carr, writing for the Buckeye Institute Blog:

For too long the status quo in Ohio has been allowed to shine the inquisition spotlight on charter schools while remaining in the dark themselves. This has allowed them to avoid confronting the fact that while there are roughly 60,000 students in charter schools, there remain over 158,000 students in urban school buildings that are in the lowest two school ratings, Academic Emergency and Academic Watch. Another 63,000 students are in traditional schools that are in Continuous Improvement for the first time, having been rated as being in Academic Watch just one year before.
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Despite failing to show any improvement in the number of standards being met, two major urban districts managed to improve the rating designation of their school system. Indeed, every single major urban district (with the exception of Dayton which stayed at one standard being met) passed fewer standards in 2004-2005 than in their previous year. Ohio's citizens and policymakers alike should be asking why school districts are being rewarded for poorer performance with better ratings. And ultimately it means that the days of scapegoating charters while giving these traditional schools a free pass need to end for the sake of all the parents and students that cannot escape.

The first step in improving our education system this coming year will be to realize where we ought to be looking: at the continued and unabated failure of our urban schools. These schools have enjoyed being largely out of the spotlight as charter schools bore the brunt of public scrutiny. The time has come to shift the focus back on these schools, to resume our demand on them for improvement and to place our policy efforts back on ways to improve their performance.

Perhaps Mark will have more to say on this subject...

I'm not surprised by this reporting... It is well past time that the powers that be in education (lawmakers, the unions, and administrators) actually get their act together and get the job done. These schools are failing a generation of kids that are going to be paying (what little) Social Security I'll be getting...I want those schools to be the best. I'm counting on them.

...but I'm not holding my breath.