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School-reform plan may be hurt by similarities to SB 5

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By Laura A. Bischoff and Megan Gildow-Anthony, Staff Writers 10:17 PM Wednesday, February 8, 2012

COLUMBUS — Gov. John Kasich loves Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s ambitious plan to overhaul the city’s failing public schools, but its similarities to the ill-fated “SB 5” collective-bargaining bill may affect its chances of becoming a statewide model.

“Senate Bill 5 poses a real challenge to this because many of provisions of this were also in Senate Bill 5,” said Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.

“I would love to try some of this stuff in Dayton. It’s just not the right time,” she said.

In his State of the State speech Tuesday, Kasich said, “I’m counting on Cleveland to deliver the goods.... We can change urban education in Ohio and change the urban education in America. And that is worth fighting for and risking for.”

Kasich said he would work with Jackson, a Democrat, on the reform plan.

The plan calls for state law changes to give the district more autonomy, eliminate seniority as the sole factor for employee layoffs or assignments, require differentiated pay to attract talented teachers and principals, mandate that Cleveland schools and unions begin future contract negotiations without carryover items from previous agreements, and provide targeted funding for year-round schools, high-performing charter schools and other initiatives.

It begs the question: Is this something Kasich would like to see spread to other urban districts such as Springfield, Dayton and Middletown?

“This may well be a good plan for Cleveland,” said Springfield City School District Superintendent David Estrop. “I trust the mayor and the others involved in writing this have a better sense of what Cleveland does than, certainly, I do. But the issues in Cleveland are very different than the issues in Springfield.”

For example, Estrop said, Cleveland is facing a $105 million deficit over the next two years, while Springfield is in far better shape.

“That is not an issue we have in Springfield,” he said. “Our financial position right now is stable as a result of the support of the taxpayers and the difficult decisions that were made in the past and our continuing efforts to keep an eye on expenditures. We’re not facing that problem.”

Estrop said he believes Springfield has already started some of the work Jackson proposed, including offering more options for students and streamlining central office staff.

“Those issues are different than what we have here in Springfield, and the worst mistake we could make is to impose the same solution on everyone, even though the problems are different,” he said. “I hope that’s not the thrust of what’s being said here.”

Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols on Wednesday declined to discuss details of any upcoming education-reform efforts and said Kasich’s team is digging into Jackson’s plan.

The governor told his audience on Tuesday that state leaders need to analyze successful models, such as high-performing charter schools in Cleveland and Wells Academy in Steubenville, where elementary school students scored the highest in the state on achievement tests.

“We need to study them, find out what works, be data driven and do it,” he said.

Springfield Education Association President Kathy Richison said the governor was attacking public schools.

“The governor’s agenda to do in public education and fill his comrades in the charter schools’ pockets is evident,” she said. “School districts have enormous work to do, we are working to meet our goals, and provide the best educational opportunity possible for our students. Please quit attacking us and let us do our jobs.”

Both Richison and Estrop said the Springfield administration and teacher’s union work together to resolve the issues facing the city schools.

“Our negotiated contract is a contract developed by and agreed to by both the union, administration and the school board,” Richison said. “We work collaboratively; we do not need to be told how to do what we already do successfully.”

The contract includes a differential pay for teachers in hard-to-staff subjects and increased training for teachers, said Estrop.

Lehner called Cleveland’s plan “bold and innovative” and said parts of it that mirror SB 5 were provisions that polled well with Ohio voters even though they rejected the entire bill.

“The challenge here is to get people to understand this isn’t just a re-run of Senate Bill 5,” she said. “This takes the best of Senate Bill 5. It doesn’t touch any of the other public employees. It doesn’t touch a lot of the other things they didn’t like about Senate Bill 5.”

The Ohio Education Association, which represents 124,000 teachers, including those in four of the eight largest urban districts, isn’t interested in any plan that brings back elements of Senate Bill 5.

As long as there is mutual trust and respect, OEA spokeswoman Michele Prater said, “Unions representing teachers can work well with school administrators to improve schools while still honoring the principles of collective bargaining.”

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