Sunday marked the 10-year anniversary of the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling the Ohio system of funding public schools unconstitutional. The problem was, they gave no ideas how to fix the problem in their initial ruling or the three subsequent ones. Since 2002, the court has dropped the matter and the funding increase has dropped from 7.5 percent, under court supervision, to 2.4 percent, which is even below the levels before the 1997 ruling. Today, a huge disparity exists between the top few public school districts in the state and the hundreds of others struggling to get by.
On March 15, Governor Ted Strickland showcased his proposal to fix educational funding in Ohio. According to the Dispatch, his proposal includes modest increases in funding, a tax break for some senior citizens and disabled homeowners - with the state picking up the tab - and eliminating vouchers everywhere except Cleveland and preventing for-profit companies from starting charter schools.
In addition, 228 school districts would receive no increases in funding.
Gov. Strickland believes his program will make the school funding system constitutional, but The Lantern wonders whether his changes are really what Ohio needs.
With over a third of schools receiving no additional funding, combined with an estimated $260 million decrease in taxes, it seems Gov. Strickland might be bringing some schools up just a little bit while keeping many others at stagnant levels. Frankly, it does not seem like there are 228 schools in the state that do not need to be improved. The costs of staying competitive are constantly increasing, and funding for all schools needs to keep up.
Another problem with Strickland's proposal is the elimination of voucher programs and charter schools. In a perfect world public schools would be good enough to eliminate the demand for these other programs, but Ohio is far from perfect. According to the Dispatch, Cleveland schools met none of the 25 measures of performance in the 2005-2006 year, with Columbus and Dayton schools meeting just five and one of the standards, respectively.
It would be unfair to shove students back into school districts their parents removed them from because of a low quality of education. Gov. Strickland needs to prove his administration can help public schools reach a satisfactory level rather than taking away other opportunities completely.
As for charter schools, it may be true that they are not held to the same standards of accountability as public or even private schools, but parents at least have the ability to remove their children from unsatisfactory charter schools. Under Strickland's proposal, only wealthy parents would be able to steer their children away from failing public schools.
Gov. Strickland should be applauded for coming up with a clear proposal, but the one he released seems to lack the necessary ambition to fix the problem.
2008 Woodie Awards