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Dayton Daily News...
Kasich wants students better prepared for jobs
By Christopher Magan and Margo Rutledge Kissell, Staff Writers
Friday, March 11, 2011
During his first State of the State address, Gov. John Kasich spoke
passionately about education, saying he wants significant reform to
ensure Ohio’s students are prepared for the jobs he wants to bring to
the state.
The Republican governor reaffirmed this week that K-12 and higher education are “critical to our economic future.”
Work force training for the real world was an overarching theme of the
address. Kasich cited a report showing there are 63,000 unfilled jobs
across the state and said CEOs tell him they don’t have the skilled
workers they need now. Honda, for instance, needs employees who can
make sure the robots are working properly.
“We have not been able to connect both K-12 and the vocational
education, higher education and our technical schools, community
colleges and our universities to real stuff,” he said. “We have to get
that done, and we’re going to work like crazy on it.”
Kasich said he wants to link the needs of business with the curriculum
in the classroom. University innovators could get a stake in the
economic benefits of their research; schools may have to share services
to save money.
“All of these reforms are going to make us stronger,” he said.
Education leaders are awaiting Kasich’s budget proposal that will be
released Tuesday to see how deeply he will cut education spending to
bridge an $8 billion budget gap. Ohio spent $10.4 billion on education
last year when stimulus dollars are included.
The state has 1.78 million K-12 students, down from 1.8 million a
decade ago. The state’s colleges and universities have added more than
100,000 students in the same time, bringing enrollment to 436,109 in
2010.
Ohio educators will have to make do without $2.1 billion in stimulus
money they used to balance their budgets in the past two years — $177
million in the Miami Valley.
Administrators are hopeful that with the cuts, Kasich will give them
some leeway on how they spend their money by loosening regulations.
“We are trying to provide the tools to those affected to help them
absorb the loss of revenue and resources,” Kasich said. “Let’s have
common sense.”
Critics charge that eliminating some of what Kasich calls “unfunded
mandates,” such as all-day kindergarten or more days of instruction by
reducing calamity days, will hurt the state’s education system and the
students it serves.
Tuesday’s speech made it clear that changes are coming. Kasich said the
controversial program Teach for America, which brings new college
graduates from other fields of study with minimal teacher training into
troubled schools, would be coming to Ohio.
He praised the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which focuses on the
United States’ lagging education system, and said he wants to screen it
in Columbus.
“It will get you angry, it will get you frustrated, it will make you
cry and it will get you to begin to stand up for our kids when you have
an opportunity,” Kasich said.
Teachers unions and other education experts have been critical of the
film as oversimplifying problems and the success of charter schools.
The state’s community colleges are fertile ground for Kasich’s idea of tying education to existing jobs and emerging industries.
Deb Norris, vice president of Sinclair Community College’s workforce
development and corporate services, said educators are focusing more
and more on jobs and the needs of area industry.
“The landscape has changed,” Norris said. “The conversation is now
about how do we become responsive, how do we meet the needs of
industry.”
Examples of how such programs would work and how they might be spread
across the state can be found both on campus and in a unique
partnership Sinclair forged with Dayton Public Schools when the $35.5
million David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center opened in 2009.
The high school at Washington Street and Edwin C. Moses Boulevard
offers 16 career pathways in arts and communications, business and
information technology, health and education, industrial arts and
engineering. Each of the programs was developed with Sinclair and is
aligned to similar programs at the community college.
Students should have their eye on college and a career from early on, Norris said.
The goal of Ponitz is to serve as an economic engine for the region by
producing students who are ready for college and careers, and who have
the academic and technical skills needed to add value to the workplace.
For Kasich, programs like these are key to the state’s future. “Nothing
should stand in our way of (giving) Ohio the ability to lead in this
country and be able to compete in the world,” he said. “We better
commit ourselves to this and get this fixed.”
Read it at Dayton Daily News
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