"School Funding in Ohio:
It's Broken! Can We Fix It?"

On September 29 nearly 200 elected officials and concerned citizens assembled at the Cleveland Heights Community Center for a public forum, School Funding in Ohio, It's Broken, Can We Fix It? The event was hosted by Cleveland Heights Mayor Ed Kelley and co-sponsored by Reaching Heights , the City of Cleveland Heights , First Suburbs Consortium, and EcoCity Cleveland. 

Ashland University professor James Van Kueren and Solon Superintendent Joe Regano grounded the audience in the basics of how the current system of school funding works, the need for reform, and factors affecting potential solutions.

Steve Bullock, a past member of the CH-UH Board of Education, moderated a panel of public school advocates who commented on their concerns, barriers to reform, prospects for change, and what citizens can do. The panel included Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education and Witness for the United Church of Christ; State Senator C.J. Prentiss of the 11 th District which includes Cleveland Heights, and Mayor Georgine Welo of South Euclid .

Jan Resseger praised the first ring suburbs for their commitment to public education as reflected in their support for school levies, and urged the audience to support Cleveland 's crucial levy. She then criticized the legislature for its failure to find a remedy for the state's illegal funding system. It “should trouble all of us, because it says something about us and our state. And it is a tragedy for our children.” She observed that for now communities will have to continue to rely on school levies to fund their schools.

Key Ingredients For a New Funding System

Resseger outlined several key elements of a new school funding system. A new system should:

• be transparent and understandable.
  
• be comprehensive; the court said "a complete, systematic
  overhaul."
  
• be funded adequately as measured by a costing-out study of the
  opportunities that are necessary for every child.  
     
• address the needs in our state's poorest rural school districts.
  
• address the needs of urban schools serving children living in
  areas of concentrated poverty.
  
• reduce reliance on extremely inequitable local property taxes.
  
• address House Bill 920, and thereby reduce the need for constant
  school levies.
  
• incorporate the assumption that paying a fair share of taxes for
  essential public services such as education is a civic responsibility
  for individuals and businesses.
  
• embody what ought to be an obvious principle: that a system of
  well-funded public schools is necessary for the public good.

State Senator C.J. Prentiss, who serves on the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Student Success, the committee charged with recommending a school funding reform plan for Ohio , is not hopeful for a quick solution. Prentiss, a long-time advocate for the needs of urban schools and poor children believes that a costing-out study is needed to establish the actual costs of educating children. While she is pleased that there is serious discussion of the issues, she is concerned that there is limited recognition that it costs more to educate poor children and that the committee will base plans on real needs.

South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo is concerned that the legislature is not listening to local leaders. She says her constituents “want to know that their schools and programs are going to be there, like they were for us.” This is the same concern mayors throughout the region are hearing. Despite her efforts and that of other mayors to push for change, the legislature doesn't get the message.

The five presenters delivered several important messages about school funding:

• It is a state problem and the legislature must find a solution. Despite the Ohio Supreme Court's multiple rulings finding the system to be unconstitutional, the legislature and governor have failed to find a remedy.

• Every community is affected.

• The system creates great inequities because of differences of property wealth and differences in voter willingness to approve new levies.
  
• Frequent levies are the result of a system that overly relies on local property taxes and a state tax-freeze law (HB 920) that rolls back the taxes that would otherwise be collected when property increases in value.  This law makes it necessary for school districts to return to the ballot as the only way to keep up with inflationary increases in costs.

• Revenue from local property taxes is being diminished by local tax abatements and new legislation that removed business inventory from the tax roles without providing school districts any revenue to replace funds lost from this tax policy.
  
• State funds for schools are limited because the Midwest economic recovery is slow and the state is broke.
  
• Conditions will get worse before they get better and there will be increased competition for scarce state funds. 
  
• Reform that calls for more spending is difficult in a time of anti-tax sentiment, greater academic and financial accountability, and little appreciation for the complex problems of educating all children to high levels.
  
• Despite the fact that this is an issue of high interest in every community, the legislature has little political will to find a solution.

The panel urged citizens to pressure their elected officials to find a solution.  They need to know that people care about this problem and want it fixed.

A video tape of the forum is available from Reaching Heights.