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State Rep. Dyer tries to tinker with formula
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau
Published on Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009
COLUMBUS: Gov. Ted Strickland, like a bizarro-world Robin Hood, is stealing from the poor and giving to the rich with his school funding plan.
It is hard to believe that someone from rural Duck Run in Appalachian Scioto County would do such a thing, but it is true.
Strickland is also taking federal funds aimed at poor and special-education children and giving many of those dollars to the wealthy too.
It boggles the mind that the man who ran promising to fix school funding would create a new funding formula that seems to reward the wealthy and punish the poor.
You don't believe it?
Keep reading, because the governor's intentions are well-meaning, but the money is flowing to wealthy districts because Strickland is genuinely trying to fix a severe problem in the way Ohio pays for schools.
Under Strickland's two-year budget proposal, the increases in funding for 140 school districts are capped at 15 percent in the first year while 90 school districts would receive 15 percent and 16 percent increases in the second year.
These districts with double-digit windfalls are among the wealthiest in the state when it comes to local property taxes.
In Summit County, Copley-Fairlawn, Twinsburg and Woodridge are winners under the governor's plan, with each receiving at least a 15 percent increase in state funding in both years of the proposed budget.
Akron City Schools would receive a 12.3 percent increase of $15.4 million in the first year and a 2 percent decrease in funding of $2.5
million the second year.
There are poor districts that are far worse off than Akron, including many of the schools that served as poster children when a coalition successfully sued the state and won four decisions before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Trimble Local in Athens County receives no increase in state funding the first year and loses 2 percent in the second.
Nearby Federal Hocking and Nelsonville-York are in the same financial sinking boat.
Locally, Canton City schools, Revere, Manchester and Nordonia Hills also stand to lose.
These numbers are found in the ''runs'' produced for each district to show how much money local schools would receive under the governor's new evidence-based model for funding.
It has been a public relations nightmare for Strickland and Democrats in the Ohio House. State Rep. Stephen Dyer, D-Green, who chairs the finance subcommittee on funding and represents a district that is one of the losers under the plan, has been attempting to find ways to tinker with the new formula.
The news, however, has worsened rather than improved for the governor in recent days.
The federal government recently released a list of the Title I and IDEA money scheduled to flow to each school district under the stimulus plan signed by President Barack Obama known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Title I and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) monies are supposed to be used to aid impoverished children and students with special education needs, respectively.
Strickland's budget pools the federal stimulus money slated for education into the overall state funding that will flow to schools, and the new formula redirects the money to wealthy districts, in many cases.
Akron, for example, is slated to receive $17.5 million from the stimulus package for Title I and IDEA programs, but as noted earlier, the district will receive only $15.4 million more in the first year of Strickland's budget and take a $2.5 million reduction in the second.
In essence, Akron is receiving $2.1 million less than the federal government is earmarking for the district and then taking another financial hit in the second year.
Canton City schools are supposed to receive $3.8 million in federal stimulus money.
The district receives no increase in state funding in the first year of Strickland's budget and takes an $809,000 reduction in the second year.
Where is the money going?
Much of it will end up in the coffers of wealthy districts.
On Monday, House Minority Leader William Batchelder, R-Medina, called for the resignation of Strickland's embattled budget director, Pari Sabety.
Batchelder noted State Auditor Mary Taylor recently announced that an audit of the state could not be completed because Sabety's budget and management office was not supplying the necessary financial information for the review.
The minority leader also questioned the legality of pooling and distributing Title I and IDEA funds through the evidence-based model formula.
Sabety told the Beacon Journal on Monday she was not resigning, and the partisan attack by Batchelder was part of a growing tradition in which the minority leader in the Ohio House called for the budget director's resignation during tough economic times.
She said the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, John Carey of Wellston, assured her he would work with the Strickland budget in the upper chamber.
Sabety said the federal stimulus money must be accounted for in a transparent manner, and the budget meets those requirements.
So why has a sane governor introduced a budget and funding formula that appears to be crazy, with more money going toward wealthy and less to poor districts?
The answer is now 16 years and eight two-year budgets old.
Watch for the explanation in Wednesday's column.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Gov. Ted Strickland, like a bizarro-world Robin Hood, is stealing from the poor and giving to the rich with his school funding plan.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 08:25 AM, 03/17/2009
Well, this makes about as much sense as everything else going on...
RichRodforOH2010.com, .
Posted 09:03 AM, 03/17/2009
Has Rep. Dyer enrolled his kid in the APS yet? You know, since he wants to cut charter school choice for kids that live in Akron and it would be hypocritical to not send his kid there while mandating cuts in education choice for said district? Just wondering.
Akron, Oh
Posted 04:03 PM, 03/17/2009
trickle down education?
Medina, OH
Posted 04:04 PM, 03/17/2009
This isn't particularly good reporting without a few historic details.
Perhaps the state budget in the past several years to these "poor" districts was 10 times the amount of the "well off" districts and the current scheme is simply to make the distribution more equitable.
This is similar to a reporter saying the rich get the tax cuts but not the poor--when the poor may not be paying any taxes at all so how can you they expect a cut?
Richfield, OH
Posted 04:38 PM, 03/17/2009
It seems to me the districts that best use the money should get more of it. Districts like Cleveland and Akron deliver poorly educated and low skilled students for the amount spent. It seems appropriate to give them less and funnel the money to districts like Revere, Hudson, Copley and others that demonstrate achievemnet. A business would never invest in a losing product - why should we do the same in schools.
akron, oh
Posted 05:57 PM, 03/17/2009
AMEN, Spirit of Reagan. Why give it to the po' folk when it will just go to waste.
Richfield, OH
Posted 11:15 PM, 03/17/2009
word - I'm for giving to poorer districts that deliver good results. But to through away money for so long is ridiculous.
