YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The leadership of the Youngstown Education Association announced Sunday that it “condemns” Gov. John Kasich’s speculations that the students in Youngstown public schools would be better served by converting their schools to charter schools.
The president of the YEA, Larry Ellis, made the announcement in a press release. The YEA is the collective bargaining agent for city school teachers.
Ellis said he and the YEA executive committee have met with Rep.-Elect Michele Lepore-Hagan and outgoing Rep. Bob Hagan regarding Lepore-Hagan hearing Kasich’s musings about closing the city public school system and starting anew with a system of charter schools.
“The YEA is strongly against this plan,” Ellis said in the press release. “The YEA strongly believes in a free and PUBLIC [his emphasis] education for the students of Youngstown. Taking this right away from the residents and students of Youngstown is wrong. The YEA believes in educating all 10,000 of the district’s children and that the over $100 million budgeted for the school district should be handled by the public system rather than privately run charter schools.”
Charter schools “operate under less public transparency and unequal accountability measures for students,” the YEA posits. “The children in the Youngstown City Schools deserve a safe, stable, organized, and nurturing environment free from Columbus outsiders making unwise and sometimes unsafe decisions for our school children!”
SOURCE: Youngstown Education Association
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our twice-monthly print edition and to our free daily email headlines.