It Couldn’t Have Gone Much Better

Last Wednesday night, West Clermont Local Schools Superintendent Keith Kline didn’t mince any words in sharing with his community how the education reform movement is impacting the teachers, students and taxpayers in his Ohio school district.  In a public meeting designed to kick off West Clermont’s Public School Advocacy initiative, Keith told it like it is:  “As you know, public education has been under fire for a long time now.  Funding continues to dwindle, we send more and more of our resources to poorly performing, for-profit charter schools and the entire teaching profession continues to be demeaned…Enough is enough!…Quality education has a direct impact on the quality of life in our country.  Our kids deserve better.”  He explained that while there has been some movement in Columbus around charter school accountability, there are still major issues around funding, evaluation of teachers, the burden of assessments and the destruction of public education as we know it.  On Thursday following his Wednesday night meeting, I spoke with Keith and asked him how it went.  He said “it couldn’t have gone much better…most of the 75 people in attendance which included a good cross-section of the entire community were taken aback when heard what is happening to their schools.”  He said there was a “positive buzz” during the meeting and before it ended nearly everyone asked what they could do to protect their school system from the government overreach coming from Columbus.  The West Clermont United parent group has committed to take on the responsibility for building and expanding the district’s school advocacy network.