From the Cleveland Plain Dealer — Originally published Friday, Feb. 27

Like most governors, Ohio’s Ted Strickland desperately wanted the $54 billion national education stimulus money that President Obama signed into law to support his school reform program and staunch [sic] the deficits in local schools.

… [T]he money comes with powerful ropes, not just string.

… Expect plenty of rope burns.

The stabilization fund mandates that governors — not state superintendents — promise to come up with a plan to distribute effective teachers equitably … They must also build a data-collection system so that states can collect data on what works and what bombs in the classroom, create tests that accommodate the needs of special education and foreign students and raise academic standards.

States must apply for competitive federal grants to pay for the data collection system and the teacher program. The winners are expected to submit progress reports to the federal government …

And there’s another wrinkle for Strickland. It’s unclear how his plan to cut charter public schools by 20 percent will fly with a new administration that has proudly supported them. …