FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2009

Contact:
Julian Rogers
216-701-5234
jrogers@edvoters.org

Education Voters Ask for Research-Based Evidence Supporting Senate Education Plan

Today, Education Voters of Ohio submitted a public records request to Senator Jon Husted asking for the evidence that the Senate used to craft the senate education plan.  The request follows comments published in the Columbus Dispatch on Sunday, where Senator Husted is quoted as saying, “From our view of the research, evidence suggests that when the money follows the child, you have a more accountable system.”  The Senate plan rejects the Governor’s proposed evidenced based approach and instead substitutes with the per-pupil approach to school funding.

“As an organization committed to including the public in the debate over school funding and education reform, we are making a formal request for all the research the Senate used to develop the school funding plan in its version of HB 1,” wrote Julian Rogers, Education Voters of Ohio’s executive director.  The letter went on to say, “We would like to share this information with concerned citizens throughout the state so that they can be more informed advocates for public education within their respective communities.”

“We are at an important crossroads in Ohio’s history, where we have an opportunity to totally overhaul a school funding system that has been ruled by the Ohio Supreme Court on four occasions to be unconstitutional. The plan put forward by the Senate appears to be a continuation of an unconstitutional system to fund schools.  I am not clear how the Senate’s plan to simply increase funding to schools by .25% in 2009-2010 and .5% in 2010-2011 will improve student success.  If the Senate has research that shows that their plan will more likely lead to higher rates of student academic achievement, then we would like to see that research so that we can encourage a broader debate among the citizens of this state”, says Rogers.

Governor Strickland and the Ohio House have put forth much effort to include input from all citizens and in explaining their justification for supporting the evidenced based model. With over 50 hours of hearings in the House, over 300 witnesses testifying, 11 listening tours around the state from the Governor and thousands of pages of research that support an evidenced based model, this is not the time to move backwards.  The Senate should move quickly to make their research available to the public.

Education Voters of Ohio is a 501(c)4 organization that advocates for specific state policies that will have a positive impact on public education and engages in activities that inform the general public on how they can best serve as advocates for their local schools.

A copy of the letter to Senator Husted is available here.

See also this statement from the Governor on evidence-based approach to education reform: Governor\’s Statement on Picus & Odden Study.

See also the House Education Plan Research outline here.

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