Changing our Schools

On Saturday morning, I stopped at Panera’s to have a cup of coffee with a friend of mine. We had only been sitting at the table for a short time when an acquaintance of mine came over to say hello. He is on one of the local school boards. He opined that the school board was afraid of newly elected Republican Governor Kasich and what he was going to do to the schools. I responded that Kasich wasn’t going to do anything to the schools per se. Our state constitution states the budget must be balanced, and since the Medicaid and schools make the bulk of the state’s budget, that is where the cuts are going to have to be made. You can’t spend what you don’t have.

He then praised Strickland’s raising of the CAT (Commercial Activity Tax) and putting that money towards the schools. Of course, what he didn’t say was it probably cost Ohio tens of thousands of jobs, which depresses the housing market, which lowers the revenue base for property taxes, which is the primary means of school funding in Ohio.

Next he criticized charter schools for bankrupting the local school systems. That comment precipitated another lady, who none of us knew, to come over and join the conversation. She teaches in a local charter school, and roundly gave my friend the proverbial “what for.” Now people were watching us.

Then my friend criticized the voters for defeating several school levies. He said that they just don’t understand. I informed him folks understand perfectly. I live in Canfield, and have four rental properties. If our Canfield local levy would have passed, it would have cost me an additional $2500.00 a year taxes…that is equal to one month’s income from the rental properties. That would be in addition to the two months I am already paying in current property taxes. We are at the end of the road, I said. The well is dry, I said.

People aren’t stupid. They have seen the state spend tens of millions of tobacco settlement money on “buildings”, particularly in the inner city, none of which has improved the schools' preformance one iota. A case in point is Volney Rogers Junior High School, which was relatively new, and torn down for no reason at all other than the school system had some money to burn. Violence in the new East and Chaney High Schools makes the front page of the Vindicator. People have seen dollars upon dollars upon dollars thrown at education, and the output goes down…not up. The answer isn’t in money. The answer is someplace else, and everyone knows it.

It is important that all citizens of Ohio to get involved in finding alternative means of funding the schools. We have been fooled by the elected officials in Columbus. They said the lottery money was supposed to go for schools. It did; but the general assembly then cut existing school funding from the non-lottery budget. The Youngstown City Schools get funding in the amount of $11,000.00 per pupil from the state. Canfield gets $1700.00. How much is enough?

I suspect Kasich will do several things to balance the state budget while improving how our schools operate. At the top of the list will be consolidation of small districts. Next will be unification of generic services for county schools. For example, a county run bus system with a centralized coordinator; county wide payroll services; centralized buying; and a cap on administrative personnel payroll as a percentage of a school systems’ budget. You will also see caps on system admininstrative fees, and perhaps an overhaul of the County Boards of Education.

But more importantly…he will begin the process of moving away from the property tax as the fundamental source of funds for schools. Arguments can be made both for and against this idea. There will ALWAYS be a degree of property tax for local schools, if for nothing else than to allow each consolidated district to maintain a degree of autonomy. But my guess you will see a retreat from property and income taxes, and perhaps a move to a sales tax model. This will not just be for school funding, but for the state generally.

Change is coming whether we like it or not. The more we know, the more we can participate in the outcome. It's time to end the controversy over school funding.