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Akron
Beacon Journal
Paying
for education
June 4, 2013
Richard
Ross, Ohio’s superintendent
of schools, once described school-funding debates in Ohio as the
education
version of Groundhog Day: Every two years, there is a big to-do about
how we
pay for public education and then we go to sleep without solving
anything, he
wrote. A former superintendent of a suburban district, Ross understands
better
than most lawmakers the uncertainties local school officials confront,
badgered, on the one hand, to be frugal and innovative, yet stuck with
a
funding structure that everyone acknowledges is deficient.
The
Senate has unveiled its budget
proposals for education, which differ in significant respects from both
Gov.
John Kasich’s budget and the House’s version. As lawmakers prepare to
reconcile
the varied proposals, the question is whether this iteration of
Groundhog Day
will turn out to be different regarding the persistent funding flaws .
Take
the wide variation in property
values, which ensures that most districts need high millage levies or
frequent
trips to the ballot to raise a bare minimum in operating funds. The
proposals
to remedy this flaw have only generated skepticism so far. Kasich’s
method of
“equalizing” state aid based on property values offered most districts,
including some of the poorest rural districts, little or no relief. The
House
wisely abandoned it, preferring a variation of the “building blocks”
model of
funding key components of education…
Read
the rest of the article at the
Akron Beacon Journalttp://www.ohio.com/editorial/paying-for-education-1.403369
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