When I saw that the Thomas B. Fordham Institute was grading the education legacy of John Kasich, I knew we would not agree. Its report begins by crediting Kasich for copying Jeb Bush’s simple-minded letter grading for schools, which makes less sense than giving a single letter grade to a child. Kasich tried to wipe out collective bargaining but was rebuked by the public in a referendum. He has given free reign with little or no accountability to charter entrepreneurs and presided over scandal after scandal in the charter sector, currently, the $1 billion wasted by ECOT. He has been indifferent at best, but certainly hostile, to the very concept of public schools, whereas his state was once a leader in advocacy for excellent public schools. Like all rightwing Republicans, he pushed for vouchers, and Ohio has a voucher program for “poor kids trapped in failing schools.” Ironically, the Fordham Institute commissioned a study of Ohio’s voucher program, led by David Figlio of Northwestern University, which determined that students who enrolled in voucher schools fared worse than their peers who remained in public schools.
During the Republican primaries of 2016, Kasich posed as the “moderate” in the race, and compared to the others, maybe he was. My friends in New York couldn’t understand why I thought he was a rightwing ideologue, no different from Jeb Bush, but pretending to be the “adult in the room.”
Bill Phillis, the retired Deputy Commissioner of Education in Ohio, and founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy, comments on the Fordham review of Kasich.
He writes (the comments in brackets are mine, not Bill Phillis’):
- The Governor established the A-F Report Card. Fordham laments that it is now in jeopardy. [My comment: good riddance to a dumb idea.]
- The Governor provided passionate support for the Third Grade Guarantee. Fordham says the jury is still out on the effects of it. [My comment: Holding back third-graders is a proven way of lifting your fourth-grade scores.]
- The Governor’s early efforts focused on lifting limitations on the creation of new charters and providing facility assistance, but then supported charter sponsor evaluations and additional charter school accountability. Fordham says charter accountability could be a lasting legacy for the Governor. [My comment: Charter accountability? That would be innovative.]
- The Governor attempted to eliminate public employee collective bargaining but failed. Then he championed Teach for America (TFA) and statewide teacher evaluations. Fordham wonders if these changes will last. [My comment: Swell idea to smash unions and introduce inexperienced, unprepared teachers who will leave in two years.]
- The Governor, early on, focused on expanding private school choice. Fordham laments that many of Ohio’s lowest income students have little opportunity to access private school choice. [My comment: Fordham funded research demonstrating that kids who use a voucher fare worse than kids in public schools.]
- The Governor eliminated the “evidence-based” school funding model. Fordham says the current school funding formula is a vast improvement over the evidence-based model. [Bill Phillis: Wow…how so? Me: Evidence and Kasich’s education policies have never actually met.]
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Often forgotten is that he was (and probably remains) one of the last holdouts to champion the Common Core.
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A big fat “F.” Add his support for taking over democratically elected school boards and replacing them cronies who support his “agenda.” Add his placing of more cronies on the boards of state universities—at the University of Akron they are trying to turn the school into a glorified community college. Add his corrupt Jobs Ohio initiative. The only good grade he gets is his ability to use Medicaid as a shield to make people look away from his ultra reactionary agenda. But that’s more a matter of style points than actual substance.
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And lest we forget, his venal attempt to pass SB 5 to further eviscerate and kill unions and collective bargaining rights.
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Kasich’s grade? F.
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Kasich tries to brand himself as the adult in the room, the sensible one, the moderate! Ha, ha, what a sick joke! He’s anything but; he’s quite right wing, libertarianish and full of the free market/standard issue GOP talking points and propaganda. The sad part is that the media plays along with this pretend game of Kasich being a sensible moderate.
Side note: spell check keeps changing Kasich to Katich, drives me nuts.
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Kasich never pretended to have any interest at all in public schools. I’m not sure he could even locate an Ohio public school and he’s a two-term governor.
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No doubt about it. Here is, almost verbatim, a conversation I had with a colleague who lives in suburban Cincinnati regarding Kasich when Kasich was running for President. This individual’s oldest child was in her second year teaching in a public school and his youngest was attending a public high school at the time.
Me: You live in Ohio. What do you think of Kasich?
Colleague: I like him except on education. Worst governor ever on education. He does nothing other than try to harm public schools. I don’t get it. It makes no sense.
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“I like him except on education.” What an idiot. Obviously someone who pays no attention whatsoever to what’s going on.
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“The pushback has been strongest in suburban areas where schools sometimes receive lower grades than popular perception would suggest they deserve”
This is laughable and typical of ed reform- where the public is assumed to be operating in bad faith- “they can’t handle THE TRUTH”
No one understands the stupid grades, because they’re nonsensical. It’s ridiculous to tell people that school grades can go up and down dramatically year to year. It’s baloney and they know it’s baloney. If the “A” wasn’t credible one year then why is the “D” suddenly credible the following year? Because it’s a lower grade?
When they make the standardized testing more difficult the school grades drop. That’s no different than making the standardized tests easier and getting an uptick. One isn’t more “true” than the other. No one knows what’s true. It’s arbitrary. I can push the cut score up or down and make it come out any way I please.
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Ed reformers want the public to believe that these school grades mean something, but “the data” is endlessly malleable.
This is the kind of conversation we have in Ohio- “didn’t this school used to be an A?” “Yes, but they changed the tests”
What is your average person supposed to do with that information? “The one measure that produced an A was changed to a measure that now produces a D” – how is that useful to anyone?
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D- cause even the worst students can pass a corrupt class
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D,
Please define “worst students” and “corrupt class”. Thanks in advance!
Duane
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Swacker, to answer your question a corrupt class is a class that is taught with a newbie 22 year neophyte who knows nothing but is put there to teach because that person is “cheap”… inexpensive salary vs the experienced teacher who is not cheap – relatively speaking.
The schools are forced to put the neophytes in the classrooms because there is no money. However, the school will tell you that the teacher is doing well in the classroom yet the classroom is like a complete zoo – this is called corrupt class in that one wants you to believe that a 22 year teacher is the same as a veteran of 22 years in the classroom!
Second, the worst students are the students who: come late every day, come unprepared, stay on their phones the entire class, constantly talking, never returning homework, disrespecting teachers and other staff as well as terrorizing other students….do I need to go further…..that my friend is the definition of corrupt classes and bad students.
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Thanks for the response.
So basically you’re saying that there are very few responsible adults in the building, in this case the state-house, eh!
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Bill Phillis is a wonder and major source of reliable information about Ohio policies and politics.
If you are for public schools, you should understand that Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Fordham Foundation operate in tandem on behalf of market-based corporate education. Both operations are shills for the billionaire agenda.
For example, these are three of twelve grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:
Date: March 2017 Purpose: to provide general operating support Amount: $1,100,000 [This is a $100, 000 increase over multiple years of grants for operating support at $100,000].
Date: July 2005 Purpose: to support the Fordham Foundation in its role as a community school sponsor in Ohio to recruit other high school developers and to share best practices across the field Amount: $1,849,173
Date: July 2003 Purpose: to strenghten Ohio’s charter school program by recruiting, training, and supporting quality sponsors for existing and future charter schools Amount: $250,000
The following are “recent funders” of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Readers of this blog and others critical of market-based and privatized education will recognize many of these funders as promoters of anything but public schools.
American Federation for Children; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation; Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation; Collaborative for Student Success; Doris and Donald Fisher Fund; Exxon Mobil Corporation; Hastings Education Fund; Jack Kent Cooke Foundation; JPMorgan Chase Foundation; Kern Family Foundation; Leona B. and Harry M. Helmsley Trust; National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; Nord Family Foundation; Roger and Susan Hertog; Smith Richardson Foundation; Strada Education Network; The Achelis and Bodman Foundation; The Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation; The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation; The George Gund Foundation; The Joyce Foundation; The Kovner Foundation; The Louis Calder Foundation; The Lovett & Ruth Peters Foundation; The Lynch Foundation; Walton Family Foundation; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; William E. Simon Foundation. (List does not include individual funders).
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute lists its “first rate” partners. These are interrelated organizations working to undermine public education.
50 Can; Agudath Israel of America; American Enterprise Institute; American Federation of Children; American Legislative Exchange Council; Brookings; Center for American Progress; Center for reinventing Public Education; Core Knowledge; Democrats for Education Reform (DFER); Education Cities; Education Next; Foundation for Excellence in Education; Great Schools; Hoover Institution; National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; National Association of Charter School Authorizers; National Council on Teacher Quality; Philanthropy Ohio; Philanthropy Roundtable; PIE Network; School Choice Ohio; Stand for Children; State Policy Network; Students First Ohio; Students First.org
Since 2010, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has supported the “Emerging Education Policy Scholars program (EEPS) for Ph.D. candidates or recent Ph. D. recipients sponsored by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and American Enterprise institute.
EEPS receive reasonable costs for travel and accommodations to attend twice a year meet-ups with each other and seminars with “reform-minded” policy power brokers in Washington, DC. Over 130 awards (for travel and accommodations) have been made since the first cohort was selected in 2010.
My analysis of the EEPS recipients shows that some institutions granting Ph.D. degrees or having EPPS alums are favored. In approximate order of favored status for EPPS networking: PH.D’s from or teaching at Harvard, 10; Stanford, 10; Vanderbilt, most from Peabody College 9; Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, 9; Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas 8; Michigan State University, 7; University of Washington, Center for Reinventing Public Education 6; University of Missouri, 5. There are many more agencies and institutions, most with two or four EPPS. For many years, the Relay Graduate School of Education had no Ph.D.s, and seemed to take pride in that. No longer. Several current Deans and faculty are enrolled for doctoral studies at the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California.
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Peggy Lehner once introduced a group of OhioBATS, who had gone to her to discuss the graduation crisis, to Lisa Gray. She announced that Lisa was her “go to source for all things education related.” I’ve also had a State school board member tell me that Lisa Gray has her hands in everything education related at the BOE. I was told that Lisa Gray is a shill for Fordham.
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I have email correspondence from Lisa Gray in which she identifies herself as representing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Ohio. She was quickly removed from direct exchanges with me in favor of communications from Adrienne Wells, of Philanthropy Ohio. I surmised from that Lisa Gray, an independent for-hire consultant, was not supposed to disclose who paid her to shape the ESSA plan for Ohio.
I had started some inquiries because the regional “stakeholder” meetings for our ESSA plan in Ohio and a parallel survey, were clearly rigged to produce a record of endorsements for a plan already shaped. The survey and regional meetings were window-dressing that excluded, for example, any discussion of charter school fraud, the use of VAM for teacher evaluation and more. In these emails (about four in all) I documented the inflow of money to the Ohio Department of Education from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into Ohio and other projects illustrating the degree to which Philanthropy Ohio excluded educators in their work.
Example: “As part of Philanthropy Ohio’s commitment to improving education, our Education Advisory Committee, has developed a series of targeted education briefing papers aimed at helping the state’s early childhood, K-12 and higher education leaders, elected officials and other key stakeholders plot a clear direction for the future of education and improved student success. It is our hope that the Open Letter and briefing papers will help guide Ohio leaders as we develop the next state biennial budget and the Ohio plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).”
The Education Advisory Committee failed to include the names of any well qualified educators in Ohio, but it did include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, not in Ohio.
An “Open Letter” to Ohio “Policy Leaders” supported charter school expansion and on-line line learning (in spite of Ohio’s national notoriety of corruption of both).
For a brief moment, Adrienne Wells of Philanthropy Ohio had to respond to my inquiries. If i had not included Bill Phillis, the AFT, and several journalists and social justice groups in these emails, I doubt if Adrienne Wells or Lisa Gray would have paid any attention.
In any case the ESSA Plan for Ohio has been shaped by big money in Ohio, with minimal respect or voice from educators. The play book is all too familiar and national in scope.
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Marketing/ branding is what America does well. This governor is in the process once again of branding himself as someone who is the adult in the room of spineless GOP leaders. He has not done a good job and for minorities and women he is the enemy of the people. Nothing different between him and the rest of the leadership of the GOP. He spends his time on talk show talking about how wonderful he is. He should be ignored and thank god he cant be governor anymore.
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And with upcoming elections hopefully pushing blue, may his name become nothing more than a historical footnote.
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