MEMO
Subject: John Kasich’s Failing Grade on Education
Date: Aug. 19, 2015
Today Ohio Gov. John Kasich is speaking at an education summit in New Hampshire — on the same day a Cincinnati Enquirer story is highlighting Kasich’s disastrous record on education in the Buckeye State.
Here’s a summary of Kasich’s record on education:
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Under Kasich’s leadership, Ohio’s education system has fallen from 5th in the nation — to 18th, according to Education Week’s Quality Counts report.
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Ohio received an overall grade of “F” in its support for public institutions, said the Young Invincibles organization, which released report cards gauging each state’s investment in higher education.
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Earlier this year he slashed nearly $100 million in funding for 120 school districts — including some of the poorest districts in the state — with a line-item veto of his own Republican legislature’s budget.
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Ohio’s $1 billion charter school system is rife with waste, fraud and abuse.
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And just last month, a Kasich administration official — the husband of his presidential campaign manager — was forced to step down amid allegations he broke state law by throwing F grades for online schools out of a key charter school evaluation this year.
Kasich dismissed calls for an independent inquiry into the charter school data scrubbing, saying it was “just a political thing.” Kasich’s right — politics and campaign contributions are at the center of his education agenda. As the Huffington Post noted, “During the 2014 election, three of Kasich’s top donors were charter school operator David Brennan and his wife, Ann, and Brennan’s company CEO, all of whom donated thousands of dollars to the Ohio Governor’s re-election.”
At the end of the day, Kasich has systematically undermined and destroyed Ohio’s public education system, and New Hampshire voters deserve to know the truth about his record.
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