Voicing My Choices on Education, v. 1.2

I grew weary of Voices and Choices talk last week and took a break. But I’ve heard that last weeks little blogstorm (or maybe blogsquall) caught the attention of the V&C crowd, so it remains an opportunity to get some education issues on the table. Last week I surveyed the many recommendations made about education and made some general observations. This week, I update that list, and revise somewhat my methodology going forward.

GrOhio had fixed, somewhat, their V&C story until it disappeared into their inaccessible archives. It was up and functioning long enough for me to get the link to this story from the ABJ business section that I apparently missed. It has a complete list with a couple of “Challenges” that didn’t show up in the original GrOhio post.

So we have a couple more of these lists to deal with:


Challenge: Public school funding that is flawed, inequitable and unconstitutional.
Solutions:

1. Take legal steps and push state legislators to be accountable for real change in school funding.


2. Restructure the tax base for education; combine property and sales tax, sin tax, etc.


3. Regionalize control of public education.


4. Share top administrators, purchasing and maintenance to lower costs and reduce gaps.


5. Use technology to link schools and create partnerships that share resources.


6. Look for outside funding to identify/create best practices for regional education system.

For reasons I gave in my last post, eliminate “Regionalize control of education” and the reference to a “regional education system.”

A second list:

Challenge: Disconnect between business and educators.
Solutions:

1. Internships, apprenticeships and mentoring promoted at all levels.


2. "Adopt a School'' for large businesses or “Adopt a Class'' for small businesses.


3. Business input in developing school curriculum.


4. Educators and community members, not lawmakers, making decisions about education.


5. School collaboration with businesses to create jobs for graduates.

These are added to what I had left after a bit of weeding out last time:

Challenge: Improving education, funding for kindergarten through grade 12, leadership, parental involvement, skills education and isolation.
Solutions:

1. Create Northeast Ohio regional advocacy group to lobby government for funding reform.


2. Vote only for candidates who will change the system, including boards of education.


3. Create an exchange between rural and urban schools to promote understanding.


4. Encourage school districts and businesses to create incentives to involve parents.


5. Create community service rewards programs, including ways to pay off student loans

Challenge: The need to educate a skilled 21st-century work force and link people to jobs.
Solutions:

1. Establish a required regional program to promote 21st-century skills and computer literacy.


2. Recognize early childhood education as key to academic and vocational success.


3. Provide adequate opportunities for alternatives to higher education to prepare young people for good jobs.


4. Engage private sector as a partner in education and preparing students for the world of work through internships and mentoring by expert professionals.


5. Use data from government, universities and business to target workforce training to protect jobs.

Challenge: Unequal educational opportunities and access, pre-kindergarten through post-secondary education and training.
Solutions:

1. Identify and apply best practices in education.


2. Find new sources of funding, such as partnering with business or professional sports teams; comply with the Supreme Court decision; establish a regional tax for education.


3. Use technology to create more equity across districts.


4. Create more youth mentoring programs.

Once we eliminate nonsense about a regional education superbureaucracy, I identify three categories of recommendations for a regional approach to education: Advocacy, Inter-District Collaboration, Public-Private Collaboration and Technical Assistance. These are the things that people can do on a regional basis.

Granted, these aren’t discrete categories so much as Venn diagram circles, but each recommendation seems to fit into one of these better than the rest.

For the balance of these posts, I will divide and evaluate the recommendations according to how they fit into these categories. I will also add my own recommendations as we go along instead of a big post of Pho’s recommendation at the end. I think this will work.

Here is how I propose to divide all this up:

V&C Recommendations for Regional Education Advocacy.

1. Take legal steps and push state legislators to be accountable for real change in school funding.


2. [Advocate for] Restructure the tax base for education; combine property and sales tax, sin tax, etc.


3. Create Northeast Ohio regional advocacy group to lobby government for funding reform.


4. Vote only for candidates who will change the system, including boards of education.


5. Educators and community members, not lawmakers, making decisions about education.


6. Recognize early childhood education as key to academic and vocational success [Let’s change that to “Advocate for greater access to quality pre-K programs].

V&C Recommendations for Inter-District Collaboration

1. Share top administrators, purchasing and maintenance to lower costs and reduce gaps.


2. Use technology to link schools and create partnerships that share resources.


3. Create an exchange between rural and urban schools to promote understanding.

V&C Recommendations for Public-Private Collaboration.

1. Internships, apprenticeships and mentoring promoted at all levels.


2. "Adopt a School'' for large businesses or “Adopt a Class'' for small businesses.


3. Business input in developing school curriculum.


4. School collaboration with businesses to create jobs for graduates.


5. Encourage school districts and businesses to create incentives to involve parents.


6. Create community service rewards programs, including ways to pay off student loans


7. Engage private sector as a partner in education and preparing students for the world of work through internships and mentoring by expert professionals.


8. Use data from government, universities and business to target workforce training to protect jobs.


9. Find new sources of funding, such as partnering with business or professional sports teams; comply with the Supreme Court decision; establish a regional tax for education.

V&C Recommendations for Regional Technical Assistance.

1. Establish a required [strike that] regional program to promote 21st-century skills and computer literacy.


2. Identify and apply best practices in education.


3. Internships, apprenticeships and mentoring promoted at all levels.


4. Create more youth mentoring programs.

Up next, I will run through the Advocacy section. What would regional advocacy look like, what would we advocate for? That's where my real passion lies; that's where I have the most to say. The remaining recommendations will be subject to a variety of slings and arrows, but can probably be done in one final post.

I will be heading out of town for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so in all likelihood, this will be up Monday at the earliest.