Tests that teachers don't like

The ones that test their job performance.

“I’m not sure the 10th-grade exam is the best way to do that. At the 10th grade, you’re still not getting a true measure of that young person’s ability to be prepared for college work.”

Sen. Harris sounds like he's reading from the OEA website. I wish he'd leave the job of sounding like a democrat to democrats.

Also, high school is nothing more than a prep school for college? What happened to high school being a learning place on it's own merits? And you could verify the schools were doing their jobs by testing. Is this too elementary (yes, it's intended) to understand that you have to measure to gauge performance?

The Ohio Grantmaker's Forum says in a recent Dispatch story:

"The group also recommended junking Ohio's standardized high-school graduation tests. The group suggested replacing the tests with other ways to gauge critical-thinking skills and readiness for college and work."

So we want to teach kids to think (like they can't already) instead of teaching hard facts and then testing to see if they've absorbed them and how well they are being taught. But since the OEA is in business to keep folks from being held accountable, we'll just use Margaret Mead's thinking:

"The child of the future must have a open mind. The home must cease to plead an ethical cause or a religious belief with smiles or frowns, caresses or threats. The children must be taught how to think, not what to think...." Coming of Age in Somoa.

To simplify their insane ideas; 2+2=4 if you think it does.

We need testing or we'll go back to the not too distant past, when we graduated people that couldn't add or write in complete sentences.

I'd argue that a good education with hard facts....and hard tests, help kids think, not the other way around.

Mr. Strickland, where's your plan?

How long do we have to wait for Governor Strickland to present his "plan" he talked about when he was running for Governor?

“U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, A Democratic Candidate For Governor, Says His Turnaround Ohio Plan Will Rescue The State's Economy.” The Columbus Dispatch, 2/25/06

We are bleeding population to other states due to Ohio having no jobs....which is due to high corporate income tax rates (ranked 48th in 2006).

Having high personal income taxes also shoves people out of Ohio. (ranked 45th)

Here is a story from the Wall Street Journal comparing Ohio and Texas.

The cause of Ohio's woes are obvious:

• High corporate income tax rates.
• High personal income tax rates.
• High death taxes.
• Unions sucking the last drop of green from the auto companies, (and the OEA sucking the green out of the taxpayers, for that matter).
• High worker's compensation costs.
• Recently increased minimum wage....which costs jobs.

So, does Governor Strickland have a plan to correct any of these problems? He claimed to, where is it when we need it? Is the plan to gamble our way out of trouble?

It's time to lead, Governor, not beg the feds for a handout.