OACTS Legislative Gameplan: Update and Strategies

OACTS Summer Conference June 21, 2012 11:15a – 12:15a

Deer Creek State LodgeMt. Sterling, Ohio

Terrence O’Donnell

Areas of Focus

• CTE Report Card

• School Funding Formula

• Adult Workforce Development

Report Card

• Rankings on back burner

• SB 316: ORC 3302.033 requires ODE to issue report cards by September 1, 2013.

• State Board to approve “in consultation with OBOR, Governor, OACTS, OACTE, and comprehensives.

Report Card

• Data Committee working on criteria. Should be both meaningful and not overly complex. May include:– Credentials– Placement– Graduation Rate– Growth

• Work with ODE in lame duck to push September 2013 date back to allow for use of more current data.

School Funding Formula

• Administration “working on it.”

• Nothing more to share at this time (!)

• Expect to see proposed changes in 2013

• Administration has expressed support in past for CTE and weighted funding

School Funding Formula• Ohio House to hold informal summer hearings to “educate itself”• July / August field hearings across state• Gov. Kasich 6/19/12: “Over the last 30 or 40 years, whatever it is,

everybody is interest[ed] in how much money is in the chart going to a district, and we have 40% of our high school graduates in remedial programs when they go to college, which is why many of them drop out, why we have such an anemic graduation rate and such a high dropout rate… I believe we ought to focus on the quality of the student that graduates and look at those things, those concepts that have been proven to be successful operating within the schools. The idea that if you just throw more money at something that somehow that’s going to make the system better is false. So we will come up with a reasonable plan… We have to lead,” he said. “We’ll share stuff, but we’re not in one big committee. They’ll do their work, they’ll do fine work; we’ll tell them, we’ll consult with them and at the end of the day the administration will have a program and a plan, and I hope it’s going to be innovative, and it’s not done yet.”

School Funding Formula

• What can we do now?– Host local legislators to ensure awareness of

importance of weighted funding– Local business community briefings to lay

groundwork and prepare for major effort (as needed)

– Bricker available to assist with key members– Develop message / messengers for summer

hearings (educators and employer community)

Adult Workforce Development

• A top Administration priority– State of State address– Executive Workforce Board

• General Assembly interest– Ad hoc committee– Local field hearings

• OBOR focus– Survey and ongoing dialogue

Adult Workforce Development

• Fill the vacuum: Work with key stakeholders to develop and advocate concrete AWD funding proposal.

• Work closely with Ohio ACTE and adult directors (PACE)

• Turn policymakers’ expressions of abstract support for CTE into deliverables

Adult Workforce Development

• Put together coherent package to introduce the proposal– Who we are and what we do– Funding streams / students served– Compelling scholarship on CTE– Specific proposal– Accountability measures– Shale gas tie-in– State’s return on investment

Adult Workforce Development

• Build diverse statewide business coalition– Provide input into proposal– Gain buy-in for plan of action

• Companies large and small for whom CTE provides skilled workers

• Business trade groups

• JobsOhio and regional partners

Adult Workforce Development

• Effort to begin now

• Goal: Inclusion of proposal in Governor’s budget “As Introduced.”

• Advocate for proposal through passage of state budget in 2013.

• Major undertaking but window appears to be open for major reforms of the system

Conclusion

• 2012-2013 to be critical time for CTE– Report Cards– School Funding Formula– AWD reform

• Also must be flexible so we can react to any number of “surprises” that come in a given legislative session!