A reader sent these hopeful thoughts about the Democratic candidate for Governor in Ohio:
There is HOPE in Ohio. The Democratic candidate for Governor, Rich Cordray, actively sought out the endorsement of OH BATS. Not only that, he met with a group of us and allowed us to tape him replying to some of our questions. He emphatically supported an END to high stakes testing in Ohio – he said he supports reducing testing to the federal minimums which in Ohio means ending High School Exit testing and the “Third Grade Reading Guarantee” (guaranteed only to give your young child anxiety about reading and testing). OH BATS was leery about endorsing ANY candidate regardless of party because both parties have been complicit in “Reform” around the nation. However, Rich Cordray has actively sought to allay our fears – I believe he is sincere and genuine in wanting to turn things around in Ohio. He is well aware of the ECOT scandal and holds great disdain for charters (He accepted a $600 Lager contribution many years ago before the corruption was apparent – when he discovered this, he immediately donated that money to his local public school! This is way different from the tens of thousands Faber, Brenner, Husted, DeWine, and Yost took from Lager). He is THE person we need in Ohio to turn things around. I hope ALL educators rally around not only OEA and OFT’s endorsed candidate, but OH BATS endorsed candidate, Rich Cordray. Any help you can give us in spreading the word that Rich is PRO PUBLIC ED would be greatly appreciated!! I have been an avid reader and admirer of yours for several years – your pro public ed heroism is unmatched! With our current slate of candidates running for the legislature and Rich Cordray leading the ticket, I am hopeful for the first time in many, many years.
Imagine that! A potential governor in Ohio who sought out the views of OHIO BATS!
If you live in Ohio, let me know what you think of Rich Cordray. Is he the anti-Kasich? Will he restore good government and support for public schools?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think Cordray is well-qualified and will be a solid and competent governor.
He actually has a good track record re: public schools. He was one of the first attorney general in the country to sue a charter on fraud and transparency issues. The decision in that first case has been used ever since. In fact, the DeWine (Cordray’s opponent) is relying on Cordray’s prior work in order to sue ECOT.
Cordray was in many ways the first whistleblower on charter fraud. He was a decade ahead of the everyone else in state government.
I don’t know of course but my sense is public education will be a big issue in Ohio this election cycle.
I think a lot of people are re-examining the lockstep ed reform agenda here, not because of “charters” or “vouchers” but because no one in state government supports PUBLIC schools.
They aren’t anti-charter. They just want someone in government to put some effort or funding or support towards the 85% of students who DO NOT attend charter and private schools.
This is a reasonable demand on the part of the public. They have an absolute right to demand that the people they pay in state government offer SOME value to public schools.
The ed reform agenda in this state has been one of loss. Public schools have taken hit after hit while all our state employees chase charters and vouchers. I think people are plain sick of it. They want someone to support the schools their children attend, not some abstract privatized system of the future.
I really hope the Democrats in Ohio are smart enough to make public education front and center in this election. It is a winning issue and the way to make an issue stick with the media is for Cordray to do nothing for a week except visit public schools and stand in front of closed charters giving press conference after press conference on why the people who stole our children’s education dollars have never been prosecuted by his opponent. (I doubt this will happen, but if he did this every day it would become the biggest issue in the campaign).
Cordray will find this out if he talks to public school families but people are also heartily sick and tired of the constant changes in testing regimes and graduation requirements.
If we can fire some of the ed reformers in state government then public schools won’t be obliged to go along with every gimmicky fad that comes of the national ed reform lobby and they can get back to focusing on students.
We need fewer lemmings in the state legislature. They need to stop parroting Jeb Bush and adopting his dumb schemes.
It is bewildering for students and parents. They change this stuff EVERY YEAR. They never do anything WELL because they’re running around in circles trying to keep up with the latest fashions that come out of the national ed reform lobby.
We’re sick of it.
Yes, Chiara. Pro-public-schools candidates will get in the door by talking down charter & vouchersch siphoning of funds for the pubschs majority attend – but in same breath, need to be talking down the overtesting/ hi-stakes-testresults-evalns of schs & teachers — & constant stds/ testing/ grad-reqts churn — that feed the privatization tapeworm.
their very tactic of making someONE or a few rich through suddenly mandated change before failure feels to mimic the pattern we are now seeing in Wash DC: suddenly forced change with only a specific few hauling in the profit before chaos.
I hope BATS told him about the snake oil skills curriculum that’s taken hold. As far as I can tell, kids are learning nothing in K-5 these days. Am I wrong? No science, no history. It’s all reading and math –and yet despite this fixation on these two subjects, they still can’t read or do math! Our efforts to teach these two things have failed, and we’ve given up on teaching other things. This is a national catastrophe. Educators who support this skills curriculum are unwitting charlatans.
I’d leave out “unwitting”.
“yet despite this fixation on these two subjects,
they still can’t read or do math!”
The “test, threaten, punish, and shame” CCSS reform movement not only focused almost exclusively on math, reading, and writing, but the generic skills-based approach narrowed those two subjects into a mind-numbing merry-go-round of context and content free nonsense. Student curiosity, interest, and enthusiasm has been suffocated by daily doses of boring and pointless activities. And for kids who do poorly on the tests, they get extra AIS classes – more of the same that isn’t working for them anyway. It’s time to call this standards based movement out for the abject failure that it is and get back to a basic, content/knowledge based, holistic educational experience.
Yes! “Daily doses of boring and pointless activities”. Most teachers have an unfounded faith that these mental weightlifting tasks will strengthen the brain like Lumosity and other brain training apps. But these apps have been discredited. By extension, our current approach in school has been discredited. Having kids DO random sh** all day is not education. Teaching them about the world is real education. Let’s get back to that.
The Cordray/Sutton campaign has convened a group of educators and other education stakeholders for an ongoing policy round table on K-12 education. One member of the group observed, “Given who else was sitting around that table, I can tell you that they are listening to the RIGHT people on the issues affecting our public education system. I have no doubt he will make teachers feels respected and heard, and he will ensure that public schools work in the best interests of our students and our communities.” Couldn’t have said it any better!
Thank you for showing up on this blog. I looked at the list of of “education stakeholders” he is consulting. Although I hate the language of “stakeholders” I am impressed with the key policy points being proposed. Public Education Partners is the most encouraging sign that Cordray is open to receiving coherent and well-informed council on education.
Ohio PEP may have reason to support Aftab against Republican Chabot. Both Cordray and Aftab will have my vote and the votes of those I can influence.
I can’t vote for Aftab but I hope he wins.
If you think Kasich is bad, you will wish he wasn’t term-limited if Dewine beats Cordray. As a native Ohioan, I can tell you Trump will be happy to see Kasich go.