Gov Strickland Stopping Business Takeover Of Public Schools

AP Interview: Governor calls school vouchers undemocratic
JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Ted Strickland sliced Ohio's school voucher program from his budget because he sees the concept as "inherently undemocratic," he said.
The first Democrat to run Ohio in 16 years expressed that concern, his distaste for companies that turn public dollars into charter school profits and his discomfort with next week's scheduled execution of a death row inmate during an interview Friday with The Associated Press.
"To me, vouchers are inherently undemocratic because they allow public dollars to be used in ways and in settings where the public has little or no oversight," Strickland said.
"Those who are paying those tax dollars have no ability to vote for a Board of Education or to make determinations regarding curriculum, or discipline or admission policies or a whole range of things," he said.
Strickland announced during his State of the State speech Wednesday that his budget would eliminate the year-old EdChoice voucher program, which is the second largest in the country and provides scholarships to 2,829 students in underperforming school districts to attend private schools. Strickland would retain a separate voucher program in Cleveland.
The governor also said he questions the expense because he's seen little evidence that voucher students do better. Interest was lukewarm in the first year for the 14,000 available slots.
"He called it 'wastefulness and giveaways' (in his speech). That's absurd," said Mike Pecchia, president of the Youngstown Christian School where vouchers supported 45 of 130 new students this year. "We do it way cheaper than anybody else does and we do it better."
Strickland said he also wants to see charter schools - privately run schools that receive public money - prove their effectiveness as an education option, which is why his budget proposes a moratorium on expanding them and a ban on for-profit companies running them.
"Ohio's implementation of the charter school movement has been a dismal, dismal failure," he said. "Some states have done it rather well with apparently positive results. In Ohio, it's been a story of mismanagement, fiscal and educational failure, and it's turned into a for-profit operation for certain individuals."
During a teleconference with Ohio reporters and editors earlier in the day, Strickland said his priorities during budget negotiations will be his recommendations for primary and secondary schools, his proposal for cutting college tuition, and his strategy for providing subsidized health care to 20,000 uninsured children.
He said he plans to appeal directly to citizens to embrace the sacrifices contained in his $53 billion, two-year spending blueprint - which includes $748 million in state agency cuts.
"I expect a pushback. We're going to push back as well," he said.