Jon Husted: Terry Ryan’s evil twin? Husted and Ryan exposed! A column from the Dayton Daily News (2/07)

"Fordham Foundation Vice President Terry Ryan and Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, are allies. Both men are true believers in school choice. Both are strong advocates for charter schools. Both have, at times, been sharply critical of Dayton Public Schools." (Photo: Jon Husted)

Jon Husted: Terry Ryan’s evil twin?
By selliott (Scott Elliott)

Dayton Daily News, February 8, 2007

Or maybe it’s Ryan who is the evil twin, depending on your point of view. (The headline is meant in jest, folks. No offense, Mr. Speaker.)

Fordham Foundation Vice President Terry Ryan and Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, are allies. Both men are true believers in school choice. Both are strong advocates for charter schools. Both have, at times, been sharply critical of Dayton Public Schools.

So when Husted visited the Dayton Daily News to meet with its editorial board Wednesday, I couldn’t wait to find out what he thought about Ryan’s commentary in Tuesday’s Dayton Daily News endorsing the district’s 15.17 mill levy?

Husted jokingly said he left Ryan a message after reading Tuesday’s paper asking who had hijacked his keyboard.

To put it mildly, Husted is not ready to offer his own endorsement.

As I sat in on the meeting, Husted was asked if he were a city resident, would he vote yes for the school district’s levy in May?

“I don’t know enough to make a decision right now,” he said. “I don’t know if they’re lean enough. I don’t know if they have closed as many schools as they should have been closing. I don’t know how many teachers they have and if they’ve gotten rid of all the people who are underperforming.”

Husted said he might be more inclined to be supportive if the district had made significant changes, like instituting merit pay for teachers. And he said the levy’s chances would be greatly enhanced if the board promised it would allow all parents in the district to use the tax dollars raised for any school they wanted to send their child to — public, private or charter.

He also said he wanted to know what other options the district considered to raise taxes. Did it look at an earned income tax? Or did it consider asking for part of the money it needs through property taxes and part through an alternative sort of tax?

Husted also flatly rejected the Dayton school board’s argument that the state is partly responsible for its financial crisis. School leaders say there was a disagreement with the Ohio Department of Education about charter school enrollment last May and that the department had agreed to a settlement of the dispute that was financially palatable to Dayton schools.

But then lawmakers wrote new rules into legislative bill that allowed the state to withdraw from the talks by declaring the education department the “final arbiter” of enrollment disputes. Dayton school leaders say they had counted the settlement money into the 2006-07 budget and the loss of those funds caused a scramble to fill the shortfall and pushed up the need for a levy. (Photo on left: Terry Ryan)

Husted said the enrollment debate was more about problems with enrollment reported by the school district than about charter schools. He said the education department absolutely should have the final say in disputes over enrollment and he rejected a recent court decision in favor of Dayton schools, saying “the judge is wrong,” and promised the state would appeal.

Husted said the education department stepped outside the law when it negotiated a settlement with Dayton schools and a couple other urban districts.

“I’m tired of people at the Ohio Department of Education interpreting the law based on what’s convenient for them,” he said.

His advice for Dayton schools on the enrollment dispute?

“Don’t make up students that don’t exist and then negotiate a number for people who aren’t there,” he said.

I guess the school board shouldn’t wait for Husted’s levy endorsement before printing up their campaign materials.