Taft pushing Ohio Core proposal

COLUMBUS -- With the elections now a memory, state lawmakers are turning their attention to that brief, but harried time known as the "lame-duck" session. This is the post-election, end-of-General-Assembly, legislative frenzy in which controversial proposals sometimes find their way out of the Statehouse.
Lawmakers, for example, passed a pay increase for state and local elected officials in the 2000 lame-duck session, including a pay boost for themselves. The coming end to the two-year legislative session promises to be busy. Majority legislative Republicans say lawmakers are looking to pass some form of Gov. Bob Taft's plan to toughen high school coursework and college entry standards by the time the 126th General Assembly draws to a close next month.
This past Wednesday, Taft, a Republican who leaves offices at the end of year, said the plan, known as Ohio Core, would help better prepare students for a technologically advanced workplace.
"Ohio's prosperity will depend on the knowledge and skills of our workers," Taft said.
The latest version of the plan, which is pending before lawmakers, would require four math classes instead of the current three and would say that science classes must be lab-centered.
The plan would also reduce to five from six the number of electives a student must take to graduate. Completing the beefed-up curriculum would be required to get into one of Ohio's four-year public colleges or universities, under the proposal.
"Access" schools
Beginning with the class of 2012, if students opt out of the proposed Ohio Core plan, they would be limited to attending so-called "access" schools such as Youngstown State University, Central State University and Shawnee State University.
"Enacting Ohio Core is the right thing to do," the governor said.
Wendy Webb, the superintendent of the Youngstown City Schools, said the jobs in of the future will be complex and that all students must be prepared.
"We believe all students can learn," said Webb.
"We need to make sure that every human resource is educated in this state," said Webb, who is also a co-chair of "Tapping Ohio's Potential," a statewide coalition of business, education and community leaders.
Fredrick Pausch, a lobbyist for the Ohio School Boards Association, said education officials support the creation of a more rigorous curriculum but have concerns about costs such as potentially having to hire additional teachers.
"We're balancing a lot of things right now," Pausch said of school districts.
Two other items that are sure to be high on legislators' minds this lame duck session are the biennial capital bill, which primarily funds brick-and-mortar state projects around Ohio, and the so-called Great Lakes Compact.
The proposed international agreement would seek to prevent those from outside the region from siphoning Great Lakes water.
The proposed pact was inked in 2005 by those representing Great Lakes states, but the proposal must still be ratified by those states' legislatures.
Canadian provinces along the Great Lakes are also seeking to ratify the proposal.
The new two-year Ohio Legislature is seated in early January.
Jeff Ortega is The Vindicator's correspondent in Columbus.