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Governor Strickland’s executive budget proposal sought to prevent newcharter and community schools from opening in Ohio until 2009.
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My colleagues and I eliminated this onerous provision.
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Further, recognizing the importance of quality growth in communityschools, members instituted a quality-based growth formula.
This formula maintains that in order for a new charter schoolto open in Ohio, it must be run by an operator that has a proven track record of success and is operating a school thatis rated in Continuous Improvement or better.
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The governor’s budget also included a provision prohibiting for-profitmanagement companies from operating schools in the state of Ohio.
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Legislators felt that limiting the options for highly successful programs to locate and operate in Ohio would further limit theoptions available to Ohio students and parents.
This proposal was removed, opening Ohio’s doors to newoptions and learning environments.
Without this action, highly successful programs,such as the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP)would have been unable to open a school inColumbus as planned.
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Further, Governor Strickland proposed reducing the per-pupil funding for students in Ohio e-schools.
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The Ohio Legislature has worked d to provide funding and necessary policies for those students who may require more than is traditionally provided to them in a conventional classroom.
Members of the Legislature fully restored per-pupil fundinglevels for Ohio e-schools and provided funding levels for e-school students equal to per-pupil funding for students intraditional public schools.
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The Ohio Legislature has a strong record in strengthening Ohio’s community schoollaws – closing schools that don’t make the grade, instituting safeguards for growthand increasing standards for e-schools across the state – this commitment iscontinued.
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After increasing academic standards for charter schools in the past, theHouse proposed to increase fiscal accountability for these schools by givingnew powers to the auditor of state when performing audits of charter schools.
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Governor Strickland proposed the elimination of the Educational Choice ScholarshipProgram, an ambitious, statewide voucher program providing options for childrencontinually underserved by failing schools – a move members of the OhioLegislature simply would not allow to occur.
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We worked to retain the Educational Choice Scholarship Program, whichallows up to 14,000 students to attend a private school of their choice.
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