Ohio has a chronic absenteeism problem. Chronic absenteeism means students not showing up for class for 10% or more of the school year. Before the pandemic, the state said about 15% of students were chronically absent. That number ballooned to nearly 30% because of the pandemic.
Chronic absenteeism tracks the total number of absences, including both excused and non-excused time away from class. Truancy measures just unexcused absences.
Now, lawmakers are considering a new approach to getting students to come to school: paying them. A bill proposed in Columbus would create two pilot programs. One would target improving absentee and truancy rates. The other would focus on improving graduation numbers.
The idea has bipartisan support. It’s getting a lot of attention both in Ohio and nationwide, and it’s getting some pushback too.
On Wednesday’s “Sound of Ideas,” we will discuss the bill proposal with a statehouse reporter and an education policy expert.
Later in the hour, we will talk with Cuyahoga County Poet Laureate Honey Bell-Bey who recently received the National Citizen Artist Award from the Americans for the Arts. The award “recognizes artists who have made the highest contribution both in their professional artistic endeavors to advance the arts as well as in their personal charitable pursuits to improve the world."
She accepted the award at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.
Bell-Bey has been using poetry to unite communities
around issues of social justice and equity for more than 25 years.
Guests:
-Jo Ingles, Reporter, Statehous News Bureau, Ohio Public Radio/TV
-Chad Aldis, Vice President for Ohio Policy, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
- Honey Bell-Bey, Poet Laureate, Cuyahoga County
