· January 25, 2013

IO Week in Review

Feel out of the loop? Here is your chance to catch up on the issues that matter and Innovation Ohio’s activities this week: IO hit the airwaves over the weekend, appearing on Columbus on the Record and Capitol Square to discuss the latest news in Ohio politics. On Tuesday, a story broke that Ohio State Board of Education President Debe Terhar compared President Obama to Hitler in a Facebook post, based on a dubious misreading of history. Innovation Ohio called on Terhar to resign immediately and asked that Governor Kasich speak out on the matter. This week, we resumed our “Taxpayer Rip-Off Of The Week”, awarding the honor to Ohio’s charter schools. Despite years of promises that they offer a cheaper and better alternative to tradition public schools, according to the Ohio Department of Education, charter schools actually cost more and perform worse. In the words of IO President Janetta King:

“… if the expenses of charters are less than those of traditional schools, why are taxpayers being asked to provide charters with twice as much state funding per pupil? If overall charter school student performance is worse, why isn’t the Kasich Administration loudly pushing for more charter ‘accountability’?

And we spotlighted spotlighted a disturbing trend in GOP-controlled state legislatures to change how presidential electoral votes are allocated. Legislation has been introduced in other states to allocate Electoral College votes by congressional district, rather than in a winner-take-all system. When combined with gerrymandered Congressional Districts, this could send the majority of a state’s electoral vote to the loser of the popular vote. Given recent supportive comments by Ohio Secretary of State Husted, this will be an important issue to watch in the coming months Don’t forget to ‘Like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute analysis and commentary.