In almost every election, the economy and jobs vie to be the top issue. Gubernatorial hopefuls Rich Cordray and Mike DeWine have now laid out their plans to bolster the state’s economy. And those proposals include new approaches to skills training and job development. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports.
Ohio Medicaid has told its five managed care plans to sever their contracts with two pharmacy benefits managers, and to work up new deals by the beginning of the year. But Auditor Dave Yost says the state needs to slow down till there’s more information about which pricing model is better.
Many of Ohio’s more than 600 school districts are back in session this week. And the more than 105,000 teachers in Ohio’s schools are back in class too. And the unions that represent them say they’re pleased they’re in the final years of an evaluation system that they feel is a problem. Recently Gov. John Kasich signed into law a big change in teacher evaluations, which was good news to the 20,000 members of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
A report commissioned by Ohio’s three major public school groups shows that state funding for K-12 education hasn’t bridged the gap between rich and poor districts. It’s the first comprehensive look at state and local aid for schools since a landmark Ohio Supreme Court ruling declaring the property tax based funding system unconstitutional. Howard Fleeter did the research that shows the percentage increase in low-wealth districts over that twenty years is just under 4 percent more than in high wealth districts. And it shows three quarters of the increase in state money came in the first ten years after DeRolph. In the second decade, local revenues have been going up, but state funds haven’t even kept pace with inflation.