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Kasich defends Youngstown Plan
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Gov. John Kasich defended the state’s takeover of the failing Youngstown school district, calling the plan a “critical part ... of saving Youngstown.”
“We’ve seen some economic rebirth, but those schools over there have failed for nine straight years,” he said. “Frankly, I’m a little disappointed in some of my Democrat colleagues who did not support the rescuing of the Youngstown schools.”
During a subsequent question-and-answer session, he also criticized local efforts to stop what’s come to be known as the Youngstown Plan.
“People still ... connected to those schools are trying to stop this reform from going into place,” he said. “What do they want to do? They want kids to continue to fail? ... People ought to be outraged when kids are trapped in failing schools. It’s a disgrace.”
Kasich offered the comments Thursday during a press conference at the Statehouse, where he and representatives of JobsOhio announced a Thailand company’s plans to step forward with an ethane-cracking facility in Belmont County.
He was unapologetic about the plan, which some have criticized as a last-minute amendment to separate legislation. It was passed in one day – June 24 – by the Ohio House and Senate.
“We just couldn’t wait any longer,” he said. “Those kids were being left behind.”
The new law establishes a process for the management of failing school districts, such as Youngstown’s, to be placed in the hands of an appointed chief executive officer.
The latter would have authority to replace school administrators and central office staff, close schools, hire new employees, set teacher class loads, curriculum, class sizes and compensation rates, among other administrative decisions.
Kasich said his administration worked with Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber head Tom Humphries, Bishop George Murry of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel and others in the community on the plan.
“The community was involved,” he said.
Youngstown school officials, Mahoning Valley lawmakers and others have been vocal in their criticism of the plan, and a lawsuit has been filed to stop it from taking effect.
But Kasich said the takeover plan and the way it was approved were appropriate.
“I’ve been going to Youngstown, as you know, for four years warning people there that we were not going to tolerate continued failure of the schools,” he said.
He added, “The bottom line on this [is] we want to put kids first. Some people said it moved too fast, I think it moved too slow. We lost kids for about nine years, and thank God [the Youngstown school plan has] happened.”
Kasich called out Democratic lawmakers who were on hand for Thursday’s press conference. Sen. Lou Gentile, D-Steubenville, said he would vote against the legislation again.
“This was rammed down our throats at the very last minute,” he said, noting that there were Republicans who also voted against the bill.
He added that Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, “and the Valley lawmakers weren’t even included in the process” and that he doesn’t support the privatization of public schools.