[LFC Comments: Thanks to a Kenston lobbyist for this article. Transparency is the key to good governance. While we are talking about Kenston, let’s remind everyone about the property tax levy on the May 4th ballot.
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Why is the Ohio Department of Education Lacking Transparency?
Written By a Kenston Lobbyist
The Ohio Department of Education has become the greatest source of proof that our Ohio government is hiding information from taxpayers. Before Ohio public school districts go on the ballot, important information about them is no longer available on our government websites. INTERESTING accident?
Just one example. Kenston School district is on the ballot for new money, but somehow taxpayers can no longer see their report card data.
Kenston report cards:
Compare the 2016-2017 Ohio report cards with 2017-2018 report cards. Interesting that back in 2016 -2017 and all years prior, ODE had far more information on their web site about each district’s performance. While so called Republican Governors have been in charge, the amount of data and facts about your district’s performance has been drastically reduced. WHY??? What happened to transparency?
When a school district suddenly begins getting A’s and B’s after consistently getting far lower grades you’d like to understand what changed. But the data behind the report card is no longer published by the Ohio Department of Education. Are the facts being hidden? Why?
Let’s look at an example.
2016 -2017 Report card
This report includes the data and the grades (scroll down to see all important information).
Now notice the drastic improvement on the 2017-2018 Report Card in just one year? Really? It normally takes several years to improve curriculum and train teachers before a district sees their scores improve.
Again, in 2018 -2019 no details for us to see exactly how the grades were assigned.
Does our Governor and the Ohio Department of Education not want you to see the data? If they presented the actual test scores, would they show that the bar was lowered so more schools could get A’s and B’s?
When report cards were introduced, they contained a plethora of test, demographic, salary, staffing, and financial data. Over the years much of that has been omitted and much transparency has been lost. Again, WHY?
And now there is a total blackout. There are no report cards at all for the 2019-2020 school year.
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Categories: Community Activism, Free Speech Zone, Real Estate Taxes, Tax Levies, Uncategorized