On the advice of his 10-year-old daughter, Mr. Kasich has declared that he wants to undo a plan that adds more instructional days to the school year by requiring students to make up more “calamity days,” which are days off usually caused by bad weather.
Mr. Kasich said he favors having the state forgive five snow days, and criticized a plan approved by Gov. Ted Strickland and the legislature last year to require schools to add days to the end of the school year if schools close for more than three days.
What’s puzzling about Mr. Kasich’s position is that he either doesn’t understand or won’t address the underlying policy question: does he want Ohio’s kids to spend more days in school? Or does he reject the notion that adding more days will help Ohio’s children compete with kids around the world who typically spend an average of 20 more days in school?
Mr. Kasich’s spokesman said the governor-elect hasn’t gotten into that level of detail about the issue and that his views on snow days are not a barometer for his thinking about lengthening the school year.
That’s weak. Mr. Kasich needs to get up to speed. What Gov. Strickland proposed was a gradual plan to have kids in school longer. As part of his education-reform plan from 2009, he pushed adding 20 days to the school calendar over 10 years.
Dropping two snow days was part of a compromise to at least get the state moving in that direction. The approach added a modest two days of instruction while allowing the Ohio Department of Education time to study the issue. The department’s report is due Dec. 31.
At a minimum, Mr. Kasich ought to get a look at that report before staking out a position.
There is support for the idea of a longer school year in both conservative and liberal circles. But the process of adding days to the school calendar is tricky. For one thing, there are costs. Teachers, bus drivers, custodians and others aren’t offering to work extra days for free.
Keep in mind, on state-approved snow days, school employees still get paid. So favoring more official snow days places the budget-conscious Mr. Kasich in the awkward position of also favoring paying school workers for time they’re off.
There may be better alternatives. The Columbus Dispatch has written about Mississinawa Valley, a rural Darke County district that has earned the state’s blessing to experiment with having kids work on lessons online at home on snow days. Perhaps expanding this sort of strategy could keep the state on track with Gov. Strickland’s original goal.
Mr. Kasich popped off about something he really hadn’t thought through. He should get in the habit of doing his homework before he speaks.
— Cox News Service