Youngstown City Schools

Youngstown has a lot of things about which we can be proud (notice I didn’t end in a preposition). One issue, however, that has dogged this community is the plethora of political subdivisions surrounding the center city. Most major cities in Ohio annexed territory over the years as city services, such as water and sewer, were provided to the outlying areas for expansion. Not here. Youngstown kept its borders, resulting in most of the prosperous parts of our community being located outside of the city limits. The highest income tax in the state stops people with jobs outside the city from moving into the city. This results in a high number of economically disadvantaged folks making up the bulk of the city population which, in turn, skews statistics. While there has been some decrease in the area’s population over the years, Mahoning County’s population still hovers around 350,000. At one time, 180,000 of that population lived in the city. Now it’s only around 80,000. The rest live in the surrounding townships, tax free.

A Vindicator headline recently screamed that Youngstown City schools are the worst in the state. Of all Ohio school systems, Youngstown City scored the worst on standardized tests. Not a good statistic for any business thinking to locate here. The flip side of the headline is that systems such as Boardman, Canfield, South Range, and Lowellville are among the highest in the state. Of course, that doesn’t make for a good headline.

Notwithstanding, the Youngstown City School System is a study in the fallacy of the approach to education in this country. The system has had money thrown at it for years from the state and the feds, and it has gotten systematically worse. It recently spent a truck load of cash on tearing down relatively new schools, and replacing them with newer schools. The most obvious example was the tearing down and replacing of Volney Rogers Junior High School In the past several years, the system has closed three of five high schools: Rayen, North, and South High Schools, and consolidated them into the two remaining but brand new high schools…Chaney on the west side and East. The effect of this was to marginalize the remaining relatively prosperous west side of Youngstown, causing its already depressed housing market to plummet.

The Youngstown City School System has the highest per pupil expenditure in the area at about $9666.00/pupil. This compares to Boardman: $8861.00; Canfield $8105.00; Poland: $8401.00; and Lowellville: $7336.00. Lowellville, by the way, is among the lowest per pupil expenditure systems, and consistently scores the highest among the area schools in test scores. Even more interesting is that while Lowellville is not particularly a poor community, it is far from rich consisting mainly of blue collar working class folks. This is hard working mid America personified.

So, what does this show? It shows what every teacher knows deep in his/her heart. Money isn’t the answer. You could be spending $20,000.00/pupil in the city school system, and although it might nudge the scores a bit, it wouldn’t be by much. The indicator of the success or failure of a school system is not based on how much money it spends, but how it is able to deal with a socio-economic structure which presents insolvable problems. These are societal problem, and schools simply aren’t equipped to handle them, nor should they be expected to. The schools' job is to educate and teach. Yet we continaully ask them to find solutions that our society in general can't find.

Sure, there will be some anecdotal success stories, mostly individual in nature. But I fear the most we can hope for is that highly trained teachers can spot those showing promise, and can concentrate on helping them break the cycle. A culture of violence, drugs, broken homes, hip hop music, gangsta rap, and poverty are overwhelming our school systems.

I am not sure what works. I only know that throwing money at this problem doesn’t work, or minimally reaches a point of diminishing returns. Maybe the answer lies in churches or community self help groups or organizations like the YMCA or Boys Clubs or Big Brother/Sister clubs. Inspiring people to learn starts in a strong family that can overcome peer pressure and guide young people into the proper path.

In this time of tight money and massive budget deficits, schools need to tighten their belts and spend money smarter. The same goes for the governments that are funding them. If spending more dollars isn’t the answer, maybe a hand out to help someone up is the answer. And that doesn’t cost a dime.