AKRON, Ohio — Ohio’s Department of Education and Workforce is asking federal regulators for tougher consequences for persistently low-performing schools, and education leaders in northeast Ohio are raising alarms about what the change could mean for their communities.
Under the state’s proposed amendment request, Ohio would be allowed to close, convert, or take direct control of schools that continue to underperform. Akron Public Schools leaders joined educators across the state in questioning the proposal this week, arguing it treats district leaders as the problem rather than partners in improvement.
District officials point to recent turnaround efforts already underway in partnership with state support teams. Akron Public Schools, which operates a dedicated school improvement department, has been meeting monthly with state support teams to raise literacy scores and has turned around struggling buildings in the past, including the Helen Arnold Community Learning Center several years ago and Buchtel Community Learning Center more than a decade earlier.
The pushback has also reached Washington. U.S. Representatives Emilia Sykes and Shontel Brown, both Democrats representing portions of northeast Ohio, sent a letter last month to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon urging her to reject the state’s proposed changes and requesting a briefing on how schools would be evaluated.
“We believe that is the difference between the current work we are doing and what is proposed — now it’s a partnership and we have a say, versus something being done to you as a penalty,” a district official said during recent discussions of the plan.
Pat Shipe, president of the Akron Education Association, said the changes would diminish the voice of communities in decisions about schools their residents fund. A department spokesperson said the state is right to increase pressure when schools persistently underperform, adding that no final decision on the amendment request has been made.
