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KENT - THE SUPER CANDIDATE FOR THE 25TH HOUSE DISTRICT By Joe Williamson Cooke Campaign rhetoric is rampant in the months and weeks leading up to a political campaign. Candidates promise what they will do. Competitors challenge how they will do it. Supporters question whether they are sincere about their willingness to live up to their commitments. The public may cast their votes based on mere speculation regarding who their candidate really is. Such is not the case with Bernadine Kennedy Kent, a Democratic party candidate for the 25th District of the Ohio House of Representatives on the March 15, 2016 primary ballot. Her track record of being an advocate for what she believes in is so well-established that she is known in educational circles as being a whistleblower, or a person who comes forward with information that is not popular, but needs to be brought to light in order for justice to prevail. Kent is currently head of a nonprofit advocacy group known as PASS or Parent Advocates for Students in School. She started the group nearly 15 years ago based on needs she determined existed after an extensive tenure as an educator and subsequently an educational administrator in Grove City, in the states of Maryland and New Jersey, in the Franklin County Juvenile detention center, and in the Columbus City School District. Her work with the detained juveniles was particularly enlightening: “I found that these children weren’t going to school. I found that they wanted to be something in life and live those dreams and go to college and have a career. The circumstances in their lives and environment caused a number of challenges. After teaching there, I thought that we could do a better job of intervening in these children’s lives much earlier.” As she built a reputation of advocating for students, she remembers an incident in which a father came to her and asked for her help in getting his daughter out of an evening program she had been placed in.” He had a right not to have his daughter in this 3-hour program,” Kent recalls. “By being taken out of the traditional school day environment and only being allowed to come to school in the evening, she wasn’t able to take advantage of the breakfast and lunch programs she was qualified for or able to receive the required educational hours under Ohio law. It took three years to get that program closed down.” By Kent’s estimation, over 1,000 students had dropped out of high school as a result of this program called the Acceleration Academy, which gave parents the idea that their children would accelerate. Kent said, “The parents soon found out that this wasn’t the case and they wanted their children out. My job became to let them know that their children didn’t have to be in this program; and with several parents armed with that knowledge and a few elected officials making inquiries, the district was forced to close the program. Ms. Kent remembers one of the program’s victims admonishing the board for using her as a “guinea pig”. The most noteworthy of Kent’s advocacy efforts resulted in extensive educational reform, beginning when she became troubled by her realization that economically disadvantaged students, who were entitled to receive free
tutoring in math and reading, were not, in fact, getting this service in the manner as she noted it was to have been provided under federal law. “The problem was that no one ensured that the outside tutoring companies approved by the state to tutor the students were real,” Kent recalled. “The tutoring companies should have been screened to make sure that they were financially sound. The Ohio Department of Education did not do that prior to placing the companies on their approved list. School districts were forced to use these companies that charged up to $125 an hour to tutor Ohio students in basic reading and math. These outside providers became headhunters looking for students to sign up, and once the students were signed up, the parents often never heard from the tutoring companies again. In some cases, the [tutors’] phone numbers were disconnected, and there was even a number going to a club called ‘Girl Friday’. Several companies called from the list had no idea about any tutoring. Several companies had addresses in California, Texas, Maryland, and D.C.” Kent’s efforts ultimately resulted in her revealing the problem to the Ohio Auditor of State. Since the funding provided for the tutoring was part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, a state and federal investigation led to a successful probe of the NCLB tutoring program, criminal charges being filed, and the closing of the program not only in Ohio but in 40 other states. Kent’s tireless efforts to bring the troubling situation to light also put her in the news media spotlight. “I was on the news in 2011 talking about the Ohio Department of Education making sure the tutoring providers were financially sound as required of them” Kent said. “After that interview, ODE attempted to ensure the providers were financially sound; however, they soon found out that was not the case when after requesting the 277 providers remaining on the list submit an audit but only 25 were able to turn in an audit by the scheduled due date. Kent attributed her effectiveness in recognizing the fraud to the fact that she knew the system. “I knew that they could not be tutoring that huge number of students. One tutoring company in Cleveland claimed 1,600 students a year were attending their after school tutoring program. That gave that tutoring company approximately 3.8 million dollars in payments a year for 16 weeks of claimed tutoring. I knew those numbers couldn’t be real. In Columbus Schools alone, the Auditor of State found 27 companies over a three-year period has bilked the taxpayers out of $800,000. As a former teacher and assistant principal, I knew the most students we could get to attend in-school tutoring using certified teachers was generally around 10 to 20.” Kent believes that her prominence as a former school teacher and administrator, and her ongoing commitment to overcoming even the most daunting obstacles to providing quality education is one of the main strengths she will bring to the Ohio House of Representatives. “Every profession has a language that we use and that language is intimidating for someone who is a non-educator and who hasn’t worked in the system. I believe that there needs to be someone at the State government level who has a background in the educational profession.” To demonstrate the importance of this type of experience in the state legislature, Kent noted that underlying the tutoring scandal were the issues of damage and identity theft. “People don’t realize the long-term ramifications of data tampering and of economically disadvantaged 33
students not getting their entitled tutoring in reading and math. The tutoring was to help these students pass the proficiency tests as well as close the achievement gap. It was to help schools get out of academic emergency and not be labeled failing schools. This fraud really disrupted our communities when schools labeled as failing were closed down. Here was a benefit for the economically disadvantaged child that they never got, and the future impact of the students’ stolen identities from the NCLB Tutoring fraud is yet to be determined.” Kent’s educational platform would also serve as the foundation for the other priorities she would address such as jobs and safety if elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. “Everything stems from education,” she asserts. “I have always been for education because I believe it is the most important topic in the state. Some argue jobs are number one, but without a strong public school system, unemployment spirals, jobs move away because there is no qualified workforce and we can’t attract jobs for the same reason and crime goes up. Education is attached to the success of everything.” The ultimate effectiveness of public servants is the extent to which what they promise to do is reflected in what they have already done. “She’s principled, number one,” confirms Bob Fitrakis, who has worked with Kent as an attorney and a political writer. “She’s incredibly intelligent and incorruptible. You don’t have to worry about her selling out to special interests.” Fitrakis also noted Kent’s ability to form diverse alliances, a skill that has become increasingly critical in achieving political success. “Her history of reaching out to the White progressive community would make her a good candidate for the 25th House District,” noted Fitzrakis, a Caucasian male. “It’s much better to have a whistle blower as a policy maker rather than leaving them on the sideline. I think she needs to get rewarded for her policies by being elected to the Statehouse. This endorsement of Kent’s Ohio House candidacy was echoed by a parent directly affected by Kent’s reputation for doing and not just talking. “She advocated for my children,” said Jocelyn Slaughter explaining how Kent works with the schools as well as works with the family to be sure they all understand their roles and responsibilities to make sure children are successful. Slaughter said Kent told her ‘to find out what your children like to do and build on it’. “She’s open to talk to anyone, no matter who you are,” Slaughter concluded. “She’s able to work with a diverse set of people because she is openminded and open to different perspectives. She is versatile in what she does. She stands firm if she’s done the research on a situation and lets you know if a situation is wrong. She’s never pulling stuff out of the air. She told me reading is fundamental and it keeps you knowledgeable. You have to keep reading and researching, and you always have to make sure that it’s accurate information. She has a heart for people. I’m rooting for her to get in there [the Ohio House of Representatives].” In her own way, Kent agrees. “I have done the work without a title,” she says of her Ohio Legislature candidacy. “I have demonstrated what I would do in regard to finding a solution and collaboration. I have the tenacity not to give up until I find that solution.” Kent concludes by stating, “My work as an educator, activist, and advocate has undoubtedly given me purpose, but it has also prepared me to become the next State Representative of the 25th district.”
Columbus African American News Journal • March 2016 TheThe Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015