Events Calendar
In This Section
Green, Springfield pass levies
Accountants win in school races
Mansfield leads Akron board race
Revere to air safe travel plan
Akron School Board to get makeover
Akron's school finances better
Retired art educator named teacher of year
University's gospel choir helps 'Make a Difference'
Most Read Stories
Family found dead in Ohio home
Robbers order bar patrons to empty pockets
Man gets 3 years in prison for having sex with horse
Sex-toy study at Duke University raises some eyebrows
Akron man turns himself in after authorities turn up heat
Get ready for detour, delays on Route 8
Man appears alive at own funeral
Blogs:
Pets:
Not 101 Dalmations…but close!
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Saturday entertainment, one more time …
Akron Zips:
No. 1 UA soccer remains perfect, Zips football defeats rival Flashes
Tribe Matters:
Tribe makes roster moves
Cleveland Browns:
Lewis doesn't like boycott
Kent State Sports:
Kent State falls to Akron, 20-28
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs at Knicks
Buckeye Blogging:
Weekly ‘B’ Deck Report – New Mexico St.
Varsity Letters:
Wrestling, bowling teams prepare for season
All Da King's Men:
Bigger And Better Boondoggles
Blog of Mass Destruction:
The Shooter
Akron Law Café:
NEW U.S. Supreme Court Database
See Jane Style:
Muffle Your Muffler
Car Chase:
Perfect Weather for an Autumn Drive
Let's Talk Real Estate:
RUMORS: Downtown Restaurant Explosion
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Jack is looking for a trip to Southern Ohio the week of November 16.
Sound Check:
The Black Keys to perform benefit concert at Musica on November 27
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – Why People Do Not Live in Northeast Ohio
Akron Gamer:
New 'Call of Duty' could set entertainment record
Billions required to do it right
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal Columbus bureau
Published on Friday, Apr 17, 2009
COLUMBUS: There were no surprises Thursday when House Democrats rolled out their changes to Gov. Ted Strickland's new school funding plan except that the phase-in would take a decade rather than eight years.
This raises an important question.
In light of the fact that Strickland, Democrats and even the Ohio Supreme Court have criticized Republicans for using residual budgeting, or only the money available to fund schools, why is phasing the governor's plan in over eight to 10 years any different?
In both cases, the schools are not getting the money from the state that they need to educate Ohio's 1.8 million children, but there is an important distinction.
For decades, Ohio's governors and state lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, never examined the true cost of educating a child.
Instead, during hearings on two-year state budget proposals, state leaders would determine how much money they had to spend on schools, combine that with estimates from local property taxes in each district, and develop a ''basic aid'' number.
This was also called the guarantee, meaning at a minimum that amount would be available on a per-pupil basis to each school district. A majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, in four rulings, understood the guarantee was meaningless. It was a number created in that eerie dimension residing somewhere between science and voodoo known as politics.
Based on evidence
Strickland and House Democrats, led by state Rep. Stephen Dyer, D-Green, are determining the cost of educating a child using an evidence-based model.
Yes, you can argue the fine points of the model, the ingredients in the education soup so to speak, even the tweaking done initially by the governor and now House Democrats to figure out how much each school district should and will receive in the next two years and thereafter.
But it is more difficult to take issue with their overall approach.
Strickland and House Democrats are providing the public with two different sets of funding numbers for each school district. There is a funding list showing the money each district will receive if their plans are passed by the legislature and signed into law. Call this the reality list.
At the same time, Strickland and now the House Democrats have put out lists showing how much money each district would receive if the formula was not phased in, but fully funded immediately. This is the dream list.
No one ever pinpointed the true shortfall in state funding on a district-by-district basis for education before.
Here's the jaw dropper: The difference between what Strickland and House Democrats plan to spend in the next two years and the figure arrived at by using the evidence-base model approach is close to $3 billion annually.
While Strickland and lawmakers are taking a different, more science-based approach, this budget still provides little comfort or relief for the school districts, students, parents and local property owners that have waited 12 years for a fix since the first Supreme Court ruling.
Dreams vs. reality
So we have an unconstitutional funding system under the old formula and we have a hugely underfunded potentially constitutional system under the new plan.
Dyer and his colleagues in the House made a series of changes to Strickland's original plan, including redirecting more funding to property-poor school districts, and properly spending $922 million in federal stimulus dollars for impoverished and special education children.
Strickland's plan inappropriately spread $922 million across all districts until the federal government sent messages to follow the rules.
But House Democrats, in essence, redivided the funding pie instead of finding any new or additional funds for education.
House Republicans immediately criticized the plan for reducing state aid to public schools by $130 million in the budget's first year and then providing a slight increase of $17 million in the second.
State Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, said in a news release that ''this is the first time since the DeRolph school funding lawsuit was filed in December of 1991 that a legislative body is proposing a cut in state aid to schools. It is disappointing and shocking that after all of the rhetoric Ohio's school children are losing out.''
Republicans are right
The Republicans are right. Strickland put no new state funding in education in his budget, but masked the absence by improperly injecting the federal stimulus dollars across the board.
Blame the economy, blame the recession; the facts speak for themselves.
House Minority Leader William Batchelder, R-Medina, said ''this is clearly a case of residual budgeting. In fact, their own documents show they have underfunded their plan by almost $3 billion per fiscal year. The revisions will turn most of the proposal into promises to fund and implement much later.''
Batchelder is correct to say the formula is underfunded, but for the first time in Ohio history, including all the years the minority leader and Amstutz and so many others were putting together and voting on spending plans for education, the proposal on the table is not the result of residual budgeting.
And albeit a small distinction at this point, it is an important step forward for this state.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: There were no surprises Thursday when House Democrats rolled out their changes to Gov. Ted Strickland's new school funding plan except that the phase-in would take a decade rather than eight years.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
uniontown, oh
Posted 09:30 AM, 04/17/2009
School funding confronts reality
Billions required to do it right
(Yes, Billions, Of Course)
***************************************************
COLUMBUS: There were no surprises Thursday when House Democrats rolled out their changes to Gov. Ted Strickland's new school funding plan except that the phase-in would take a decade rather than eight years.
(Surprises...NO, None Here)
(Yet nothing said of any time wasted since told by Ohio Supreme Court to fix school funding)
Akron, OH
Posted 10:36 AM, 04/17/2009
These oh so bright lawmakers and bureaucrats always look at only one side of the equation, HOW DO WE GET MORE MONEY TO FUND EDUCATION. Well if they had half a brain (or hadn't been educated by Ohio public schools) they might look at HOW CAN WE REDUCE THE COST OF EDUCATING?
The assumption that education costs X without challenging why it costs X is lunacy. You want a simple solution? Drop the monopoly on education. Let parents choose where they want their children educated. Competition will breed efficiency in the system. What we have now is a joke.
Make the world a better place... punch a Steeler fan in the face, .
Posted 12:24 PM, 04/17/2009
NotinAkron,
Agreed.
righthere, oh
Posted 01:09 PM, 04/17/2009
Gov Strickland won't and the State House won't look at the why education costs X because the teacher's union wouldn't like that.
Make the world a better place... punch a Steeler fan in the face, .
Posted 01:54 PM, 04/17/2009
I'm still looking for the update on whether Dyer, who lives in Green, enrolled his kid in the APS. One can only determine school choice for parents in Akron if one sends their own child to the APS, lest he be a gigantic hypocrite. Open enrollment, Steve. The Kenmore cluster will let you in.
Clinton, OH
Posted 08:50 PM, 04/17/2009
Kevin Coughlin brought up a good point during an interview recently. I wish he would pursue it. Why do all schools need separate administrators? Rittman & Orrville share a Super. Can't this be done more often in Ohio with all administrative positions?
