Friday, May 04, 2012BOARDMAN, Ohio – Former Gov. Ted Strickland will be among the panelists Monday night to discuss “the protection of the public school system from privately operated schools,” the Mahoning County Education Service Center announced Thursday.
The meeting, sponsored by the educational service center, will be held at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Boardman High School, 7777 Glenwood Ave.
Other panelists are Ron Iarussi, superintendent of the service center; Frank Lazerri, superintendent of Boardman schools; Deborah Cain, a member of the state board of education; Steve Dyer, former state representative and now an education fellow at Innovation Ohio; Dick Murray with the Muskingum Valley Educational Service Center; Kern Alexander, a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois and billed as a “nationally acclaimed school finance expert”; and William L. Phillis, executive director of Ohio Coalition for Equity & Advocacy of School Funding.
Also scheduled to be speak and offer comments are state representatives Ron Gerberry, D-59 Austintown, and Robert Hagan, D-60 Youngstown, and state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-33 Canfield.
Over the last decade, the budgets of public school systems across the state have suffered because of reduced support from the Ohio Legislature, the growing number of parents educating their children at home, and charter schools diverting funding from public school systems.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.