Gov. John Kasich on Thursday pledged to get tough next year on Ohio’s underperforming charter schools.
“We will not tolerate people coming into this state, making money at the expense of great education for our kids,” Kasich said in a year-end speech before Ohio Chamber of Commerce members. “And the legislature’s going to have to help us on this.”
Kasich said “toughened rules” will be put in the two-year state budget he introduces next year.
The comments likely surprised many in the room given Kasich’s and the Republican-controlled legislature’s endorsement of the publicly-funded private schools and charter operators’ history of hefty campaign contributions to GOP coffers. Democrats and public education advocates have long called for state officials to reign in a situation called “the Wild Wild West of charter schools” by one national pro-charter group.
Calls for more regulation for charter schools and their sponsor organizations have accelerated in recent months following allegations of misspending and misbehavior in a chain of charter schools and recent reports showing the schools need more oversight to be successful.
Here are three other highlights from the panel discussion.
No one is safe from tax reform
Kasich said his next budget will include more cuts to personal income tax rates, which he and the chamber believe will spur economic growth. But the business community will have to share some of the burden, he said. He asked for the chamber’s support for a severance tax increase, which Kasich has proposed for the past three years.
“You’re not going to get this done by just slashing government spending,” Kasich said.
Kasich also said the fact that Ohio’s cigarette tax isn’t higher is “nonsense.” Earlier this year, Kasich proposed raising cigarette taxes as much as 60 cents per pack as part of a plan to reduce the overall tax burden. Lawmakers stripped the tax out of the off-year budget bill. Kasich said Thursday the only reason cigarette taxes aren’t higher is because of lobbyists.
Balanced budget
After supporting charter school regulations and tax hikes, Kasich landed on softer ground with the pro-business crowd in his call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced federal budget.
Kasich has embarked on a national campaign for the idea, recently trying to get support in Arizona, where lawmakers have hesitated to back it.
Ohio lawmakers last year passed a resolution calling for a national constitutional convention to consider adding the balanced-budget provision. Kasich said Thursday that 10 more states need to support the idea to trigger a convention.
Kasich said Ohio’s balanced-budget requirement forces state departments and agencies to figure out ways to be more efficient, knowing they can’t get everything they want out of the budget.
Medicaid and welfare reform
Kasich said state officials are working on ways to move Ohioans off Medicaid, the state- and federally-funded medical insurance program, and other welfare programs. The state is working to create a “help office” where Ohioans receiving food stamps, which carry a work or training requirement, are connected with businesses who can provide that work or training.
“It’s not this notion that there’s all this Big Gulp and big screen TVs and everybody’s living high on the hog — go live like that for a while and see how you like it,” Kasich said. “But at the same time, we want people to get ahead and we cannot have a system where if you want to take a promotion or get a bonus you lose your daycare and have to turn this stuff down.”
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