Don't miss this week's Ohio Education Gadfly, which opens with a look at the Peach State's recent decision to open its doors to two new high-quality virtual schools. Georgia is applying smart accountability to the new schools and offers a lesson for Ohio, where an ironclad moratorium on new e-schools effectively punishes new operators for the misdeeds of past poor performers instead of applying sensible accountability mechanisms. As the state faces alarming budget cuts, using a hatchet on virtual schools represents a missed opportunity for Ohio students and families, many of whom would be served very well by new online opportunities.
Next, Ohio Gadfly kicks around some interesting statistics on the education systems of the top 16 World Cup finalists. Which countries have the highest percentage of kids enrolled in school? The lowest student-teacher ratios? The most instructional hours? Making international comparisons of education is as difficult as watching the US lose to Ghana, but the data are worth perusing because what's more important than how a country plays futbol and educates its youth?
For a grim look at Ohio's options heading into the next budget cycle, check out our thoughts on the latest report from?Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions. If you're not a fan of tax increases and/or spending cuts you'd better sit down ? the report suggests that both are necessary to deal with Ohio's budget woes.
For more bleak ? but important ? news, read on. Ohio's major newspapers, the president of the senate, and others are finally acting alarmed by the state's crippled pension system. Ohio Gadfly revisits a 2007 Fordham Institute report outlining four major problems with the teacher pension system, and delivers some good news: at least Ohioans have agreed there's a problem.
Also check out analysis on Ohio's School Improvement Grants, reviews of the latest KIPP study, Florida's disappointingly futile class-size reduction mandate, the latest high school graduation data, and interim findings on charter school management organizations. Editor's Extras brings you an amusing story about an eccentric middle school principal, an incredibly useful (and no, we're not being sarcastic) database from the Ohio Department of Education, and Newsweek's list of best high schools.
?The Fordham Ohio Team