Ohio schools' unfunded mandates

Numerous schools in Ohio are undergoing stressful financial circumstances; some, like Toledo, are asking for levies. Others, like Perrysburg and Anthony Wayne, are making more severe cuts than have ever been made. Much of this is due to a decrease in state funding; what is absolutely infuriating in the tremendous increase in unfunded state mandates, including all day kindergarten, the addition of numerous programs and positions, all in the face of schools that are actually cutting staff. At this page is a good rundown of some of these unfunded mandates. Warning: slow=loading page.
One has to ask: why are Ohio politicians so out of touch with the needs of schools and their students?

n many Ohio newspapers there are signs of the meltdown; the convergence of education-hype and reality. One member on our blog team called me yesterday and coined it "Educationfundology". He said we should use our public universities to crank outEducationfundologist. After a good laugh, we both commiserated on the pseudoscience used for the political campaign to "fix" our funding system.