Add Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to the list of state officials endorsing the policy that requires 65 percent of every education dollar to go to instruction.
The Republican official and candidate for governor in 2006 said this month that he plans to devise a strategy and lead a petition drive to get the proposal to voters as an initiative in the 2006 statewide ballot.
He will be joined in the effort by Patrick Byrne, the director of First Class Education, a Washington-based group that advocates the “65-Cent Solution” nationwide. That 65 percent includes teachers’ salaries.
Citing state data, Mr. Blackwell said that in Ohio’s 612 districts, about 57 cents of every education dollar goes to the classroom. Several state legislatures have considered similar plans, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, ordered the state education agency to enforce new rules that require 65 percent of district spening go to the classroom.
