Kucinich: Distress commission members secretly trying to privatize Ohio schools

YOUNGSTOWN

An Ohio gubernatorial candidate said he intends to give those trying to privatize public education “the fight of their lives.”

Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat, said Thursday that appointed officials of Youngstown City Schools’s Academic Distress Commission are covertly considering action that could remove control from local voters and privatize the entire public school system.

House Bill 70, commonly referred to as the Youngstown Plan, which was signed into law by Gov. John Kasich in July 2015, enabled a state-appointed academic distress commission to hire a CEO – Krish Mohip – to lead the Youngstown School District. The bill gives Mohip complete operational, managerial and instructional control.

“There are people inside the process not happy about recent turn of events where the privatization of the Youngstown City School District is being seriously considered,” Kucinich said. “I was contacted by someone inside [with this information] and I am quite satisfied the information I have is accurate and needs to be made public. We are talking about lives of thousands of Youngstown city schoolchildren being set at odds to profit motives.”

Read more about the matter in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.