Groups Seek To Spur Local Reforms in Ohio
More than 75 organizations are marshaling their forces to spur grassroots school reform in Ohio.
Ohio’s department of education announced last week the creation of a coalition to promote and publicize innovative local reforms and encourage districts to mobilize community support for schools.
Ted Sanders, the state superintendent of public instruction, and Robert Wehling, a senior vice president of the Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Company, will head the coalition. It will include educators, union representatives, businesses, and parent groups.
The coalition will support changes in instruction and other reforms that complement changes the legislature is expected to make in the state’s school-funding system.
A state judge struck down the current school-finance system in July. Gov. George W. Voinovich is appealing that decision, but the state education department is expected to release a funding scheme produced by school-finance experts brought in to design a more equitable system.
Election Update: Parris N. Glendening, a Democratic county executive, apparently held on to a 5,000-vote lead to win the gubernatorial election in Maryland, where officials finished counting absentee ballots last week.
But his Republican challenger, State Rep. Ellen R. Sauerbrey, refused to concede. She has alleged voting improprieties in Baltimore and the Washington suburbs, where Mr. Glendening compiled his winning margin. Ms. Sauerbrey said last week that she may challenge the result in court.
Meanwhile, the governor’s race in Alaska remained too close to call. The Democratic candidate, Tony Knowles, led Republican James O. Campbell by about 500 votes last week, with some 8,000 absentee ballots to be counted.
Republicans won 24 of the 36 gubernatorial elections held this month. An independent won the governorship in Maine. (See Education Week, 11/16/94.)
