Ohio governor begins meetings on education

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Figure out what schools are doing well, consult teachers and develop individual education plans for all students.

Those were some of the principles guiding Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday as he began the first of 12 statewide meetings to develop his long-awaited education plan.

The stakes are high: a decade-long lawsuit ended with the constitutionality of Ohio's school funding system up in the air, and Strickland has said he'll be judged a success or failure by his approach to school funding.

"Education is the central issue that we as Ohioans face together," Strickland said Tuesday at the first meeting in Columbus.

Strickland has invited business leaders, educators, parents and students to attend the meetings to be broadcast on some public television stations and live on the Internet.

The next meetings are Wednesday in Akron and Monday in Cincinnati.

The meetings will only address proposed education policies. A second set of meetings this fall will explore changes to Ohio's school-funding system.

During Tuesday's 90-minute forum, Strickland suggested ideas that a proposed plan could explore, including universal kindergarten, longer school days or a longer school year and new training methods for teachers.

He also said it's important not to overlook what American education does well.

"Other countries may be producing more engineers than our country, but I think it's also true that our method of producing engineers and teaching them and so on results in engineers that tend to be more creative," he said. "That's something other countries want."

Strickland also agreed with one audience member who said school should be something students look forward to.

"Part of the concern I have is we are squeezing the joy out of learning," the governor said.

The key will be what happens to the results of Strickland's meetings, said Jim Betts, spokesman for a coalition of schools that tried to bring a new school-funding initiative to the ballot in 2007. He said former Gov. Bob Taft and Strickland have shared the same sincere goal of trying to find better ways to teach kids.

"The real test will be the results and how actively and aggressively the results are pursued," he said.

Fixing Ohio's education system has a long and bumpy history in the state.

In December 2002, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled for the fourth time that the state's system of relying on property taxes to pay for schools is unconstitutional.

But the court didn't give lawmakers a deadline to fix the problem and ended its jurisdiction in the case, which dated to 1991.

Last year, backers of the ballot issue aimed at fixing the school funding system failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Taft created blue ribbon committees to study testing, teaching and, in 2003, school funding. All addressed some of the same questions now before the state.

Though the first round of meetings won't look at funding, school funding finances are crucial to any plan, said David Varda, executive director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.

"It's getting from what we think we need to have to how we're going to do it and how we're going to pay for it," Varda said.

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On the Net:

Governor's education Web site: http://www.ConversationOnEducation.Org