Who Rules the Schools?

c. 2007 Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(9-07)

Note to Readers: What follows here is a report on the Geauga School Funding Forum held recently in Thompson. Guests like Ledgemont Treasurer Leanne Ashby-Sidley, Scott Peipho from Ohio Fair Schools, and State Representative Matt Dolan helped participants understand the complexities of this issue.

School funding discussed at Geauga County meeting

What is ‘fair’ about school funding in Ohio?
A variety of educators, representatives, and concerned parents gathered at Thompson United Methodist Church on September 22nd to discuss this emotional subject. The forum was designed to identify concerns and possible solutions in a local setting.
Sponsor and host Pastor Harley Wheeler said that the formal dialogue was initiated at the urging of Reverend John Hopkins, Resident Bishop of the area.
Leanne Ashby-Sidley, Treasurer of the Ledgemont Local School District was first to address the meeting. She provided valuable insight into the challenges faced by our educational institutions.
“I encourage everyone to find the answers they seek by talking to their public officials. Whether it is the Ledgemont, Chardon, Madison or any other school district or your city or township, as residents these are ‘your’ buildings and entities and you have a right as well as an obligation to be involved.”
Sidley spoke directly to those who have suggested that business principles might help improve the process of public education.
“Imagine you have a store,” she said. “You order red grapes, but also receive green grapes that you did not need. Your response would be to send them back. But in the schools, we can’t do that. We must teach red grapes, and green grapes. Everyone has the same right to learn.”
Scott Peipho from Ohio Fair Schools was next to offer input.
“Leo Tolstoy wrote that every happy family is the same, but unhappy families have many different reasons for their sadness,” he explained. “In the same way, successful school districts are the same. But failing districts are in trouble for many different reasons.”
Peipho noted that Governor Strickland is working behind the scenes to facilitate useful school reform.
“He is making sure to get major constituent support from the business and farm sectors across our state,” he said. “Two big issues are vouchers and charter schools.”
Peipho also analyzed the State Supreme Court rulings that declared our system of funding schools to be unconstitutional.
“The DeRolph decisions were more about adequacy and sustainability than fairness,” he observed. “Revenue is static, but costs go up for the districts. They have a problem with ‘phantom revenue’ – money lost in the process of funding. In general, there is an over-reliance on property taxes. Bringing everybody together and getting agreement on solutions is more difficult than it sounds.”
The group discussion period covered three basic questions: First, what would a strong and just educational system in Ohio look like? Second, what are the barriers to achieving this goal? And third, What can we do to make this a reality?
Opinions and emotions varied on what would constitute a fair educational system.
Chardon Board of Education member Larry Reiter said that students in Geauga should be filled with knowledge to their own potential.
“A basic education ought to prepare kids to grow into productive citizens,” he said.
Yet Reiter observed that the current plan hinders the performance of excellent schools. The mechanism designed in Columbus uses a student ‘head count’ along with local economic factors to decide how money is appropriated. “We are punished for being successful, not rewarded,” he reflected.
Parent and writer Robyn Dill expressed her anxiety over the state of poor districts in southern Ohio.
“I know of places where there are classes of students graduating from trailers,” she said. “It is very sad.”
Tonia Fowler, a local resident born in Croatia, said that European schools focus more heavily on the basics. This streamlined approach puts more emphasis on core needs with less focus on peripheral classes.
“Everyone learns one or two foreign languages there,” she recalled. “There is no basket weaving.”
Barriers to reforming the school funding system were much easier for the group to identify with agreement. Everyone seemed to echo the sentiment that unfunded mandates from the government were a source of difficulty for all districts, across Ohio. Hiring qualified teachers was another shared concern. Lastly, the inability of some schools to maintain their facilities under the current financial structure was identified.
For implementation of new ideas, the assembled guests expressed a desire to look at other states for inspiration. But Reiter remembered that the idea had been tried before.
“Numerous groups have done this,” he said. “We must communicate with our legislators. They need to hear from us.”
State Representative Matt Dolan concluded the gathering with his own careful observations.
“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue,” he said. “Governor Strickland’s current plan would offer the lowest funding amount in the last five budgets. It is a very different, very conflicted issue. Remember that if we were having this conversation in southeastern Ohio, it would be very different.”
Dolan offered statistics that were both meaningful, and surprising.
“Thirty-seven states have school funding systems that have been ruled unconstitutional by their supreme courts,” he explained. “We are fifth in the nation for spending on K-12 operating costs.”
The representative said it is an issue to be addressed as a team.
“We own success together, and we own failure together,” he said with conviction. “Our goal is to make sure that Ohio educates children – to make sure that they do better than their parents.”
But Dolan argued that focusing on revenue alone is a mistake.
“In New Jersey, a 1970 lawsuit produced higher taxes and more money for all districts,” he said. “This produced more lawsuits, and a formula where the bottom thirty percent were given revenue that matched the top thirty percent. Low-income districts had no incentive to generate taxes. The result was no progress in the bottom thirty percent. (So) Don’t get bogged down in thinking that money is the only reason (for improvement).”
In closing, Treasurer Sidley repeated her call for help with the business of maintaining our public learning institutions.
“Open enrollment, and charter schools are killing us,” she proclaimed. “Money is leaving the district every year.”
Pastor Wheeler concluded with an admonition for home schooling as an important part of the state’s educational resources.
“Each of us needs to take an interest in educating children,” he said. “A formula of some kind is needed so as not to penalize districts like Ledgemont.”
The yield of this productive, local discussion was a simple message, in three parts:

1.) Fair and just means that students in every county should have access to a safe and competent learning environment, with opportunities to grow.
2.) Barriers to achieving this goal are diverse, but typical. Funds are limited. Counties in the state vary in their own economic and social composition. Perceptions of fairness are not always universal. Needs in one community may not mirror those in the next. Political structures resist change. The task of reform is never easy.
3.) To achieve fairness, one requirement outshines all others – participation. Parents, teachers, and legislators must be involved if they are to make a difference.

There is nothing simple about the issue of public education, whether viewed from the State House in Columbus, or the pew of a community church in Geauga County. Yet the only way to guarantee failure on this issue is not to try new ideas.