Each Friday, Eye on the Statehouse announces its “Porker of the Week.” It’s our way of calling attention to a particularly big or wasteful spender.

This week’s Porker is Melissa Clark from the Ohio Education Association (OEA). During testimony to the Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee, Ms. Clark asked the committee to severely reduce charter schools and eliminate the popular EdChoice voucher program.

According to Ms. Clark, these programs impede public school excellence. She forgot to mention that the programs were developed because many public failed to educate children.

“Too often we see issues involving finances, record-keeping and even illegal activities in community schools,” Clark said.

Really? She must mean stories like this, this and this – all stories of wrong-doing in public schools. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Regarding school choice Ms. Clark stated, “By placing a premium on choice and competition at the expense of academic excellence, these programs are contrary to the interest of the state, parents and students.”

No Ms. Clark, competition does not hurt excellence it creates excellence. Further, parents of students in failing public schools overwhelmingly support the EdChoice program.

Ken Blackwell, Buckeye Institute’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, explains why in a recent column.

Currently, large numbers of Ohio’s public schools, particularly those in the state’s urban areas, fail to teach our children. Public school failure can be measured in many ways. For example, over 115,550 students in Ohio’s eight largest cities are attending 251 schools not meeting even the state’s minimal education standards. Far larger numbers of children are receiving educations that leave them completely unprepared for today’s global economy.

In contrast, school choice programs are working and growing. First in the form of charter schools for 76,000 pupils in over 200 schools, then in an autism scholarship expanding choice to key middle class constituencies, and now to the EdChoice program making another 50,000 students eligible for 14,000 vouchers to escape failing public schools.

These fledgling choice programs are becoming increasingly popular because public schools are performing so poorly. In fact, Ohio’s charter schools and vouchers are only available to students living in districts in academic emergency or academic watch.

Parents like the programs because they empower them. Teacher unions oppose the programs because they weaken their position at the collective bargaining table.

The OEA’s principal concern is the pay and benefits of its members. Educating kids comes a distant second. Ms. Clark presented herself as a child education advocate, she is not. In fact, she is simply a union lobbyist seeking more benefits and less accountability for her members. Ms. Clark is the Porker of the Week.

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