Eleven years ago I started teaching special education so that I could make a difference in the lives of the students who need it most—children with severe and multiple disabilities. I live and work in one of the state’s highest poverty per capita areas, and I wouldn’t change what I do for the world. I didn’t become a teacher to get rich; I became a teacher to serve. Continue reading → Collective bargaining becomes collective begging if one of the parties involved has the legal power to decide the final outcome with no legal recourse for the other party. Senate Bill 5, which is now Issue 2 on the ballot, does not revisit collective bargaining—it destroys it. It is similar to going to a dentist and he pulls all the teeth because in his professional opinion a few were bad. Continue reading → Debate is good—it often yields innovation. Debate is the cornerstone of an educated modern society. Collective bargaining is just that—a debate. Collective bargaining allows educators to have a discussion about what we need to help ensure that our students are prepared to succeed. And what happens in a debate? Both sides come to a table, [...] Continue reading → The brands offered by White Hat and Imagine have provided little in terms of tangible results – White Hat’s dropout prevention charter schools post a graduation rate of just 14 percent and no Imagine school earned better than a D on the most recent state report card. Continue reading → Ohio is ideally placed to compete for $440 million in Race to the Top federal grant money, despite complaints by Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State. Continue reading → 