Late Friday afternoon, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced his intention to appoint Fordham’s president emeritus, Chester E. “Checker” Finn, Jr., as the Buckeye State’s first Director of Education and Workforce, a.k.a. state superintendent.
“When I was reminded that Checker grew up in Dayton,” DeWine noted at a press conference, “I knew I had my man.” The announcement follows on the heels of Fordham’s Vice President Chad Aldis’s appointment as the state superintendent of Iowa, his home state, by Governor Kim Reynolds.
DeWine said that Finn has a clear charge: “Return Ohio’s education system to the excellence that prevailed when you and I were kids”—in the 1950s.
“I understand,” noted the Governor, “that includes an embrace of phonics (rebranded ‘the science of reading’), but also class sizes of thirty-five or more. And the best part,” continued DeWine, “is that there were no teachers unions back then, so nobody’s going to grump.” Finn’s departure will leave big shoes to fill at Fordham, but we’re excited to see what the original Education Gadfly can do to shape up schools in the Buckeye State.
