art class

Getting rid of the statewide 5 of 8 rule could lead some schools to lose their art teachers and other specialized teachers and support staff.

(Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer, File, 2001)

The gulf between Ohio's financially struggling school districts and its wealthier ones is bound to worsen if the Ohio Board of Education votes to eliminate existing minimum staffing levels for counselors, library media specialists, school nurses, social workers and elementary art, music and physical education teachers -- the so-called five of eight rule.

For that reason, state board members should vote no today on an intent to approve eliminating the rule, which impacts both public and chartered, nonpublic schools, such as Catholic schools.

If the state education board makes this first move to get rid of the rule, others should step in to halt the misguided effort.

The 5 of 8 rule next must be approved by the Ohio Common Sense Initiative Office and by the Joint Commission on Agency Rules, which makes sure the proposal doesn't exceed the school board's authority.

The CSI office seems key here because it must decide if the board's proposal is fair and consistent. It isn't. The office should reject the elimination of the 5 of 8 rule on the basis that tossing the rule could make public education in Ohio more unequal.

Should the CSI office and the JCAR both approve it, the proposal faces a final vote before the state education board next year. It could go into effect in the 2015-16 school year.

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According to the current rule, school districts must hire 5 of 8 specialized staff or teachers for every 1,000 students. The rule was passed in 1983, in an effort, it seems, to make sure that students' access to specialty services was on roughly equal footing throughout Ohio.

Now some are arguing that the rule is out of date and that school superintendents should have more control over the composition of their staff. However, there's no doubt that since there's no "achievement test" for music or art, some school districts may see these staff as optional.

At the very least, the board should tweak the rule so that small, struggling schools are able to hire social workers from a social service agency, for instance, instead of having to put them on the payroll.

But Ohio needs minimal standards to make sure that poor and wealthier youngsters alike have access to counselors, social workers and art and music classes.