Cleveland
Plain Dealer
Kasich's
bold school funding proposal puts Ohio
on the right path
By Thomas W. Johnson, Guest Columnist
February 24, 2013
Ohio
has once again started the journey to
develop a new way of funding our local school districts -- a journey
our state
has started several times but never quite finished. This time, I
believe Gov.
John Kasich is bringing this journey toward the end and that his new
school
funding and reform plan holds great promise for providing every
student's
school with the resources they need to succeed.
As
a former state budget director for seven
years and state representative from southeast Ohio for 22 years -- who
also
chaired the Ohio House Finance Committee for four years -- I've been in
the
middle of Ohio's school funding debates for the past three decades. In
that
time I learned that no change is desired by some education leaders more
than a
change that increases funding in their district. Despite the fact that
support
for local schools consumes nearly one-quarter of Ohio's general revenue
fund,
no increase ever seems to be quite enough.
Ohio
has more than 600 school districts, making
it very hard to craft a formula that pleases everyone -- or even most.
At the
same time, Ohioans continue to move away from urban and rural areas to
the
suburbs, and many districts are starting to see rising property values
as a
result of Ohio's economic recovery. Given these facts, it was
surprising that,
in response to the governor's comments that his plan gives more money
to poor
districts and less money to rich districts, some local education
leaders
complained when they saw estimates that some poor districts would
receive the
same funds as last year while some suburban and high-wealth districts
would
receive increases.
The
fact is that the governor's plan does
exactly what he said it would do: gives poor districts more state money
and
rich districts less. Poor districts receive far more money per pupil
than rich
ones, and poor and urban districts receive more of the state's total
education
funds than rich ones.
Ohio's
school finance system allocates state
funds according to student enrollment, property tax wealth and
residents'
incomes, among other factors, so a school district's help from the
state goes
up or down based on its need. When districts have fewer students or
greater
property tax value or income, and are therefore more capable of taking
care of
their own needs, they receive fewer state funds. Conversely, districts
with
more students or lower wealth need more help, and the state provides it.
Read
the rest of the article at the Cleveland
Plain Dealer
|