Ted Strickland

Reforming Education for Ohio’s Future

In the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Governor Strickland passed a budget that protects education funding and reforms Ohio’s public education system.  Governor Strickland introduced an evidence-based model that changes the way Ohio schools are funded and directs resources to the school districts that need them the most.  New accountability measures ensure dollars get to children in the classrooms.  

The plan changes teaching methods and student assessment to set high standards for Ohio’s children. It will ensure that students learn the critical skills necessary for the 21st century workplace and spur them to master a curriculum that will prepare them for higher education.  

Some key elements of reform and increased support for education include:

• The largest percentage of total budget spending for K-12 education since 1980.
• A constitutional system for funding Ohio’s schools. The plan establishes a constitutional funding system that increases the state’s share of education funding from 48% to 61% and reduces reliance on local property taxes.
• An accountable school funding system. New measures ensure that money directed to school districts gets to the children in the classroom. School districts will have to account for spending on components created by Governor Strickland’s evidence-based funding model at the building level, ensuring that money tagged for a certain component is spent on that component.  
• More than $4 billion for new and better schools. Governor Strickland’s plan provides more than $4 billion of new money to the Ohio School Facilities Commission to fund construction of new and improved schools across the state. Much of the funding will go to building 250 “green” schools across the state and creating more than 12,500 high paying jobs without any increase in state debt.  
• New assessments for changing needs.  Instead of the high-stakes Ohio Graduation Test, the new plan includes a three-part plan that sets high standards for mastery, increases college-readiness, and tests the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the 21st century. Universal ACT testing will increase the number of Ohio students taking the ACT by over 36,000 each year, encouraging more Ohio high school students to pursue higher education.  In addition, end-of-course exams in the subjects that make up Ohio’s rigorous Core Curriculum will ensure more students complete the Core requirements.  
• Enhanced classroom methods for the 21st century. The plan incorporates project-based, cooperative, and interactive classroom methods to better teach Ohio’s rigorous Core Curriculum and prepare students for the workplace of the 21st century.
• Improved standards for Ohio’s teacher education programs. Governor Strickland’s plan aligns teacher education standards with methods that will help educators use project-based, cooperative and interactive learning in the classroom. A reconfiguration of Ohio’s teacher preparation programs means that Ohio’s 50 teacher prep programs at 13 public and 37 private universities will produce 8,000 graduates a year with the knowledge to step into 21st century classrooms.
• Innovative programs to help Ohio’s most at-risk students. The Governor’s “Closing the Achievement Gap” program showed a 16.5% increase in the promotion rate for at-risk high school students during the pilot year. Governor Strickland integrated the program into his evidence-based model and will soon expand programming to elementary and middle schools, as well as a record number of high schools. According to estimates, the expanded program will reach an additional 80,000 at-risk students across 19 districts, 91 high schools and 250 elementary schools.