Gov. Strickland Defends His Keno Stance to United Methodists
July 1, 2008
According to this story on NBC 4 in Columbus, Governor Ted Strickland may have violated a pledge he made to the United Methodist Church during his campaign. During the campaign, Strickland purportedly told the Rev. John Edgar, with his bishop present, that he would not expand gambling if elected governor.
Strickland apparently sees this as a game of semantics. According to his spokesman:
The governor is saddened if he (Edgar) has that impression, but the governor does not consider this new lottery game to be an expansion of gambling in Ohio.
I guess it depends whether or not keno is considered gambling. According to Wikipedia, “Keno is a lottery-like or bingo-like gambling game played at modern casinos.” I don’t know much about it but it seems somewhat similar to the lottery to me.
What rubs some the wrong way is that Strickland is an ordained Methodist preacher and people expect to be able to take him at his word.
The money generated from Keno is to be used to help fund public schools in Ohio. I think the more important question is this…Should we be using revenue from the lottery or lottery-like games to fund public schools?
Does Strickland Favor Looser Gun Laws?
May 21, 2008
I have to admit that I was pretty shocked when I read this Columbus Dispatch article.
A push by the National Rifle Association to loosen a number of state gun laws is drawing heavy criticism from prosecutors and a variety of law-enforcement groups who argue it will make them and the public less safe.
“It seems clear to the law-enforcement community in Ohio that it is the intent of some to do a ‘jam job’ on these extremely important issues,” Mark Drum, a lobbyist for the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, wrote recently to Rep. John J. White, R-Kettering, chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee.
When Bob Taft, a Republican, was governor, he gave law enforcement a big say in whether Ohio gun laws should be changed, but now the NRA has a rock-solid friend in Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland.
He is not concerned that his support for the gun proposal goes against police officers, police chiefs and county sheriffs, a spokesman said. “As a gun-rights supporter, the governor believes these are reasonable and appropriate protections for gun owners,” Keith Dailey, the governor’s spokesman, said, referring to the NRA-backed proposals.
The article goes on to describe what these new ammendments would do.
Among its changes, the bill would let anyone carry a gun in a vehicle, regardless of whether they have a concealed-carry license. The gun would have to be unloaded and in a case, which could be unlocked.
Hanson said current law, which generally says that non-licensees must transport guns in a trunk or locked case, has been “chewed up beyond recognition” by police officers and the courts.
Law-enforcement groups say the proposal makes it too easy for someone in a vehicle to load a gun. They also say the plan would let people carry rifles and sawed-off shotguns in their vehicles.
The State Highway Patrol, which has been very vocal in the past about concerns over guns in vehicles, is now, under Strickland, declining to talk about the issue.
Some additional NRA-backed changes:
• A sheriff could not consider a sealed or expunged conviction in the background check of an applicant for a concealed-carry license.
• The penalty would be reduced for a concealed-carry licensee who had failed to notify law enforcement that he or she was carrying a gun, if the officer or dispatcher knew the person had a gun license.
Landlords would be prohibited from barring tenants from keeping handguns.
• Law enforcement would be prohibited from seizing legally owned firearms in a period of emergency.
Does Strickland want to take Ohio back to the Wild West?
When Will High-Speed Internet Be Available For Everyone?
April 25, 2008
Is high-speed internet access a right that all Ohioans should expect to receive simply for living in this state? The Columbus Dispatch informs us today that the problem is pretty wide spread throughout Ohio. It seems as though living close to one of the major population centers does not necessarily guarantee access to high-speed internet.
“If they can’t wire all of Franklin County, how are they going to get it in Appalachia?” asked Hubbard, 78, a retired associate professor of journalism at Ohio State University.
Connect Ohio is a three year project that has already been allocated $2.9 million in state funds. After that, the program will have a $2.3 million annual budget.
I think we have better things to spend our tax payer money on. In my opinion it is far more important that all Ohioans have heath care than having access to broadband internet. After all, there are some advantages to living in the major urban centers of any state, aren’t there?
Restart the Death Chambers
April 17, 2008
I realize the title of this post is a bit sensationalist, but it got you to read more, didn’t it? The Supreme Court of the United States just ruled that lethal injection is constitutional in the United States. There has been a moratorium on death by lethal injection, but that can now be lifted.
In the Dispatch, Governor Ted Strickland stated:
Gov. Ted Strickland said he had not read the decision but noted that because the Kentucky and Ohio lethal-injection methods are similar, “You would think … that the legal outcome would be similar, as well.” The Democrat supports the death penalty.
What do you think about the death penalty? It has traditionally been a hot button issue in our society. Do you think that it actually works as a deterrent as intended?
Ohio Superintendent of Education On Her Way Out
April 17, 2008
According to the Columbus Dispatch, our state superintendent of public schools, Susan Zelman, is on her way out the door. She has come under attack from the Strickland Administration for her unwillingness to work with the administration (i.e. give them what they want).
Gov. Ted Strickland has proposed a change to public education in the form of an Education Czar of Ohio, much like his right hand man, Eric Fingerhut. His ultimate goal is to have more influence over Ohio’s public education system and to make the ceremonial figure head a member of his cabinet. Thus, he would in effect have virtual total control. He could dismiss the new czar at will.
According to the Dispatch:
Board President Jennifer Sheets told The Dispatch today that a small group of board members has met privately with the governor, and then with members of his staff, to discuss both his plan and his desire to have more input into the selection of a superintendent.
Several board members said that the panel remains opposed to Strickland’s plan for an education czar but is open to giving the governor input in selecting a new superintendent.
I know that as a blogger, I am supposed to have a clear cut position on this issue if I choose to write about it. On top of that, I am an educator so I should know what I think. But I am torn on this issue. I do think that the governor and legislature should have more influence on public education to a certain degree. However, I also like the idea of an autonomous entity looking out for the needs of the children of Ohio. After all, doesn’t the government play a key role in education already through its powers of funding and creating new laws and mandates on our public schools?
Does Strickland really need even more power?
So I ask you, what do you think?
Who Will Pay For College
April 7, 2008
Today in the Columbus Dispatch, there is an interesting article relating to Gov. Strickland and Eric Fingerhut’s plan to send our brighest seniors off to college when they are 17 years old and still in high school.
This plan on which I have already blogged, will cost the state money. As most know, education is an expensive endeavor, but one in which the state and federal governments should be spending more money. In my opinion, there are few others things in life as important as educating our youth.
According to the article:
The governor and education Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut have left that up to school districts and colleges to hash out.
Isn’t that nice of Fingerhut? We already have a system that has been declared unconstitutional on several occasions so Fingerhut’s idea is to throw his hands up in the air and hope that someone else will solve this paroblem. Interesting to say the least.
As I previously stated, my beef with the Seniors to Sophomores Program is not the cost associated with the program. Rather it is the brain drain effect that could devastate our high schools. Instead of having our brightest students in classroom to be leaders of the school and positive role models for their peers, we are going to ship them off to a place in which they are emotionally not ready to handle. Your thoughts?
Strickland on Education
March 29, 2008
Many of us have been eagerly awaiting Governor Ted Strickland’s reform plans for Ohio education. According to the Columbus Dispatch, it looks like we will be waiting a bit longer.
One major contention with many Ohio educators is the Ohio Graduation Test that students must pass to graduate. Surely you have heard complaints about this test. You won’t see those in this blog though. I am an educator and I believe in accountability. This is an assessment tool that tests students on material that they theoretically should have learned by the 10th grade year. However, this test covers things from 8th and 9th grade as well. Both students and teachers should be held accountable and although this may not be the most perfect way to do so, it does need to be done.
To find out more about Strickland’s plans, check out the dispatch blog.
I will leave you with this thought…it makes me a bit nervous when state legislators who have little background in educational theory begin to make or tinker with educational policy. Just because someone went to school, does not mean they understand how students learn.
Changes to State Colleges
March 16, 2008
Today I read an article in the Columbus Dispatch titled “Change coming to state colleges.” As an educator, anytime I read or hear something about “change” I admit I am often skeptical. According to the article:
Fingerhut is fine-tuning the new Seniors to Sophomores program so that more high-school students take college classes. Students who participate would be college sophomores when they graduate from high school.
Why is it that people that do not have a background in education always seem to think that the answer is to get the students out of there? I personally have nothing against Eric Fingerhut. It sounds like he is doing a good job overall. But if his mandate is to deal with the state University system, stay out of the domain of public education, specifically in high school.
Whether it is giving vouchers to students to help pay the tuition prices at private schools or pushing the post-secondary educational system that sends high school kids to college to take classes, we must remember that these are high school students who do not have the maturity level to be placed in a college classroom setting. With all of the brain development research being completed now that tells us that the brains of high school students are not yet fully developed, why do we want to place them in an atmosphere with students that have different values systems and levels of maturity?
“We already have a number of kids in college who don’t seem mature enough, and now we’re concerned that we are going to have to accept them a year younger whether they are ready or not,” said Eugene Rutz, academic director at the engineering college at the University of Cincinnati.
Why not focus on beefing up the curriculum in our high schools to offer more stimulating courses to those high school students that crave it? We are already doing that throughout the state of Ohio. Advanced placement courses are one way that we have been accomplishing that goal. The State Department of Education in Ohio says that:
AP provides incentives for students to complete postsecondary education. Data indicate that 45 percent of students who have taken one AP course and 61 percent of students who have taken two or more AP courses are completing their bachelor’s degree in four years or less.
We are also accomplishing this goal through International Baccalaureate courses that have recently come to the state of Ohio. Check out this site and this site to find out more about this wonderful program.
The answer is not to send our best and brightest onto college when they are not ready.
Poll: Slim majority of Ohioans say state on “wrong track”
March 12, 2008
According to the Beacon:
A slim majority of adult Ohioans — 52.3 percent — reported that the state was on the ”wrong track” overall.
That’s according to the new University of Akron Buckeye Poll that was to be released in Columbus today.
Survey results show that Ohioans are in a pessimistic mood.
A majority — 55.2 percent — said the state’s moral climate was on the wrong track.
A large majority — 74.4 percent — said the economy was on the wrong track.
The survey was conducted by the university’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
Survey findings involve Ohio government and politics and the 2008 general election campaign in Ohio.
Officials with the the Bliss Institute were to discuss the survey results at the Riffe Center in downtown Columbus.
This is further evidence of some of the reasons that Hillary Clinton took the state of Ohio. Her base tends to be the “working poor.” When 74.4% of respondents to a poll say that the economy of Ohio is headed in the wrong direction, all politicians should be wary. The voters are likely to take this out on the incumbent party. We know that this looks to be the case nationally, but should state law makers be getting worried?
Ohio Government Earns a B-
March 8, 2008
According to the Columbus Dispatch, the state government earns the grade of B- under the leadership of Governor Ted Strickland. The report is based on everything from the budget to roads and bridges.
According to the Dispatch:
But a projected state budget shortfall being put at somewhere between $735 million and $1.9 billion is “indicative of the shortage of precise numbers in the state.”
Ohio also gets graded down for not yet having a strategy to deal with the “coming wave of retirements among state employees” and the institutional knowledge that will be lost.
I didn’t realize what a huge budget deficit the state of Ohio had.
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