Ohio governor begins meetings on education

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COLUMBUS (AP) — Figure out what schools are doing well, consult teachers and develop individual education plans for all students.

Those were some of the principles guiding Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday as he began the first of 12 statewide meetings to develop his long-awaited education plan.

The stakes are high: a decadelong lawsuit ended with the constitutionality of Ohio’s school funding system up in the air, and Strickland has said he’ll be judged a success or failure by his approach to school funding.

“Education is the central issue that we as Ohioans face together,” Strickland said Tuesday at the first meeting in Columbus.

Strickland has invited business leaders, educators, parents and students to attend the meetings to be broadcast on some public television stations and live on the Internet.

The next meetings are today in Akron and Monday in Cincinnati. The meetings will only address proposed education policies. A second set of meetings this fall will explore changes to Ohio’s school-funding system.

During Tuesday’s 90-minute forum, Strickland suggested ideas that a proposed plan could explore, including universal kindergarten, longer school days or a longer school year and new training methods for teachers.

He also said it’s important not to overlook what American education does well.

“Other countries may be producing more engineers than our country, but I think it’s also true that our method of producing engineers and teaching them and so on results in engineers that tend to be more creative,” he said. “That’s something other countries want.”

Strickland also agreed with one audience member who said school should be something students look forward to.

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