The Grinch Named ALEC and the Ohio Department of Education

You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel.
You’re as cuddly as a cactus. You’re as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch! You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!

You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch. Your heart’s an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders. You’ve got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch! I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!

The Grinch named ALEC has paid a visit to the Ohio Department of Education to help the state school board steal the guarantee of a quality education from public school children. Under the pretense of giving school districts more freedom to make their own hiring decisions, 14 (out of 19) board members have chosen to ignore over 70,000 citizens’ pleas and do away with minimum staffing requirements for elementary schools. This move will most likely lead cash-strapped districts to eliminate art, music and physical education teachers, as well as nurses, library media specialists, guidance counselors, and social workers.

The Grinch slides down the chimney, a rather tight pinch,
But if Santa can do it, then so can the Grinch.

The kids’ special stockings are hung in a row.
“These specials,” he shouts, “are the next things to go!”

“Art, music, and phys. ed. teachers, and nurses!
Librarians! Counselors! Social workers!” he curses. 

Public schools are replete with expensive “education reform” policies created by for-profit education corporations in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and presented to GOP legislators who belong to the secretive group. The list includes high-stakes testing, vouchers, unaccountable charter schools, and other initiatives that use taxpayer dollars to subsidize ALEC education companies. All of these state-controlled mandates compete for district resources that have already been slashed by drastic budget cuts thanks to ALEC alumnus Governor John Kasich.

The Buckeye state’s public schools have become laboratories for ALEC’s poorly developed educational legislation that time and again puts profits before children. Kids have never been under more developmentally inappropriate and highly stressful policies than what we see in public schools today. Every child deserves a thorough and efficient education that can only come from well-rounded programming that focuses on the whole child. With the elimination of “the 5 of 8 rule,” that ideal may no longer be a reality in a state where many students already suffer because of large opportunity gaps between its public school systems.

As the Grinch takes away equity and then starts to leave,
He feels a small tug at the end of his sleeve.
The child stares at the Grinch saying, “Santy Claus, why,
Why get rid of minimum standards? Why?”

“Why, my sweet little tot,” the fake Santa extols,
“I’m doing this to give districts more local control.
Either they want to have local control or they don’t.
I can’t let them have it both ways. No, I won’t.”

No matter what the Grinch says, this course of action is truly not about giving school districts “more local control.” Those are mindless buzz words meant to manipulate Ohioans into agreeing with an unreasonable and unnecessary initiative. Discontinuing the “5 of 8” minimum standards will entice school districts into balancing their depleted budgets by cutting licensed educators and contracting with private companies to provide those lost services.

The change in operating procedures will compromise the “thorough and efficient education” standard in the Ohio Constitution, which was adopted to protect school children from substandard or non-existent educational programming. More importantly to corporate profiteers, it will also enable the Grinch named ALEC to expedite its education task force goals of diminishing teachers’ unions and privatizing public education.

You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch. You’re a nasty-wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks. Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch! The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, “Stink, stank, stunk!”

Many thanks to State Board of Education members, A.J. Wagner, Mary Rose Oakar, Ann Jacobs, Stephanie Dodd, and Deborah Cain, who calmly confronted the Grinch and voted against the proposed changes in state standards. May they forever be known as true friends of public education.

You too can confront the Grinch at the Ohio Department of Education in April as the state school board takes its final vote to eliminate these school staffing standards. http://education.ohio.gov/Contact

Testimony will be heard on Monday, April 13th, before the BOE votes whether to lessen the roles of art, music and physical education teachers, nurses, media specialists, guidance counselors, and social workers in our public schools.

Our voices matter- see you at the State Board of Education meeting in Columbus, Ohio, on April 13th!

Think.