Will Ohio education depend on DeVos?

Betsy DeVos has been recently appointed as secretary of education. She is also a leader in the education world and the business world. DeVos is the former chairman of The Windquest group which is a private firm located in Michigan. DeVos graduated from Holland Christian School with her bachelor’s degree in arts.

 

Common core and funding are two biggest concerns schools are facing in Ohio. Common core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English or the outline of  learning goals for each grade. DeVos said, “I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control.” Although DeVos mentions on her website that she is against common core, which is something not only Ohio is facing, but nationwide.

 

With Betsy DeVos being appointed the secretary of education, concerns of her qualification are spreading nationwide but, how do educators in Ohio feel about her agenda?

 

 

 

There are many different concerns throughout the community in the state of Ohio as well as in the education system most importantly what her impact on Ohio’s system will become. Just like Harr, others feel strongly against DeVos.

 

Danielle Russo is one of those individuals. Russo is an Ohio Education Association Board of director for district six as well as a gifted intervention specialist at Garfield Elementary. “I am highly opposed to her for many reasons. I guess the biggest thing to me is I’m a big supporter of public schools. To my knowledge she [DeVos] did not receive a public school education; not a degree in public education at all. She doesn’t have a lot of experience,” said Russo.

 

With DeVos having little to no experience in the public school education system, there are a lot of issues that public schools face. Public schools face a lot of challenges in the system like: funding, special needs accommodations, and testing.

 

Since John Kasich has been governor of Ohio, there have been a lot more issues with money and where the funding comes from.

 

To give a statewide perspective on the budget cut issue Kasich made, in this article from The Columbus Dispatch it broke down some numbers that affected Ohio statewide with cuts. “Kasich’s budget increases K-12 funding by about $100 million — a bit more than 1 percent — per year. However, it does not increase the $6,000 base per-pupil funding amount — a decision likely to draw heat from charter schools.”

 

On one hand public schools have a lot of issues with funding and testing, but on the other,  charter schools might benefit from DeVos’ appointment.

 

“I’m not as informed and I don’t pay much attention to charter schools. But I do think Charter schools are truly failing and doing worse than public schools.  Putting that money toward the charter schools and taking away from public schools are not making their programs sticking around,” said Russo.

 

 

However, on the other hand, some people within the educational system are trying to be optimistic about Devos’ appointment. With it being so early on, Devos will have time to prove herself. Sarah Fowler, a seventh district Ohio State Board of Education member, is optimistic about Devos’ recent appointment.

 

“I am hopefully optimistic. The information I have gathered, as a board member, I looked into her policies and it appears to be positive in the moment,” said Fowler. Along with Fowler and her stance on being optimistic, she researched DeVos’ website and liked the sound of her policies. She sees the potential for change in the near future.“My concern is not so much that she won’t do well, she is opposed to the common core, which I think is something positive.” said Fowler.

 

Common core is a system in which students are expected to learn certain subjects at certain grade levels. In an article it states  the standards represent a synthesis of related work in all states. This means that the subjects they are learning such as math, science, english, reading, etc. is to help the student understand the material as well as how the teacher needs to help them. The educational system is very complex and has to deal with a lot of flexibility which is something  Fowler hopes DeVos will change.

 

“I feel that is very important to know DeVos’ direction is going to be with the Every Student Succeeds Act( ESSA), she has the ability to impact the federal regulations making process around that law and it can make it more flexible for the state law or less flexible.” said Fowler.

 

The ESSA is an important educational act that affects students within the state of Ohio.

 

“If she is more open to flexibility then it could open more opportunities. If she is inclined to be more restrictive, then it will be harder. The ESSA law allowed greater flexibility to states regarding different federal requirements for education. The US department of education has to create the regulations around that law. They could be very strict or lenient. It’s my hope that DeVos will push that to the state than local district and what is going to be most beneficial in their area.,” said Fowler.

 

Fowler said that the law touches on a whole variety of things to the state standards and assessments to every student 3rd through 8th grade to graduation requirement to teacher evaluations to Title 1 funding and students with special needs. The law touches many things and they have the ability to regulate anything the law touches, if DeVos is willing to be more flexible then change could happen within the system.
The effect that DeVos will have in Ohio is unknown at this time with her policies in its early stages but, it will be an interesting journey to see in the next several months. Money and politics are two of the main essentials when it comes to DeVos’ appointment and the educational system in general. In time, DeVos will have the power to change the educational system, good or bad.