Ohio senator highlights Amish schools’ focus on reading and math through eighth grade

Ohio State Senator Sandra O’Brien, who represents the 32nd Senate District, wrote about the Amish school system in the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Geauga. She said she represents an estimated 40,000 Amish community members, roughly 10 to 12 percent of her district’s population. She noted that the Amish generally live apart from many modern conveniences. With few exceptions, they do not own automobiles, they shun electricity, and they do not use public schools.

O’Brien said the Amish school system is large. At the last count there were 114 Amish schools in her district. Although Amish residents pay the same property taxes as other residents, the schools do not accept tax dollars. The Amish build and maintain each school themselves. Students attend only through the eighth grade and do not continue on to high school or college.

According to O’Brien, Amish education concentrates on the basics of reading and math. Students also study geography, Ohio history and the U.S. Constitution, but they do not study the sciences. She said they do not study foreign languages because they are already bilingual. In the business world they speak English, while at home they speak what she called “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Many Amish can also converse in German, she said, although that is not universal in the community.

O’Brien argued that an eighth-grade education centered on reading and math has produced notable results. She said the Amish are natural entrepreneurs who own businesses as other non-Amish residents do. She listed carpentry, furniture making and lumber mills, along with small grocery stores, large restaurants and bakeries. She said the Amish manufacture premium flooring, grow many of the vegetables consumed in the region, and are, as a group, among Ohio’s largest maple syrup producers. She added that they farm thousands of acres for crops and livestock sold on the market, and that they are experts in solar technology and battery-powered tools. She said she could list their talents and successes at much greater length.

Contrasting Amish schools with public schools, O’Brien said Amish schools have no synthetic football fields, wellness centers, free lunches, performing arts centers, bus fleets or additional library wings. She acknowledged that public schools have come to be expected to offer such features and that they may enhance children’s futures. Still, she asked whether the basics were being neglected. She pointed to recent public school test scores showing weak performance in reading and math as a sign that they may be. She asked whether “mission creep” in schools had caused them to lose sight of their basic purpose, and said that, in her view, it appeared so.

O’Brien concluded her argument by saying that her Amish constituents have not lost sight of the basics, citing the old saying “Readin’ Writin’ and ‘Rithmetic,” and said that other schools should do the same. The article’s editor’s note identifies O’Brien as a former elementary school teacher and former Ashtabula County Auditor. It also notes that she was recently interviewed on the President’s Podcast about education and property tax reform.

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