“I will be making suggestions that, if enacted, will result in a transformed system of education in Ohio.’’
Governor Ted Strickland, January 2009
The governor of Ohio is promising to transform the educational system of the state, both in the delivery of education and in the delivery of the dollars to pay for it. More on his statement. There is no better time to take this on, as the state needs to retool and revamp itself in order to withstand and then emerge from this economic crisis. Standing still and waiting for it to pass is no option.
On Wednesday, he will outline his plans in his third State of the State address, and discussion and debate will ensue as his budget proposal makes its way to the Ohio General Assembly and into public debate.
Of course, there is no shortage of ideas and proposals to fix education and fix school funding. Some ideas masquerade as reform but are really just more of the same, and some ideas are so far out there as to be unworkable and actually counter productive to the ideals of public education.
We have spent considerable time researching, studying and discussing the Ohio school funding issue, and we have offered the governor our advice on what transforming the school funding system in Ohio could look like.
Today, we released two reports on school funding that spell out two fundamental changes that the state can make to successfully reform Ohio’s unconstitutional school funding system.
The reports underscore the need for the state to:
– Adopt a method for estimating adequate funding for education that relies on research into successful practices, an approach known as the evidence-based model for costing out.
– Ease the harmful effects on school districts of property tax restrictions created by House Bill 920, while keeping some protection for property owners against unvoted tax increases.
The first report, entitled, “The Importance of Costing out a Quality Education in Ohio: Why Evidence-based Should be Ohio’s Choice,” lays out a plan that would target tax dollars to those spending areas that research and best practices indicate will dramatically improve academic achievement. More on evidence-based.
We don’t have that system now, and the public knows it. They have no confidence that their tax dollars are being spent on areas that will help students succeed.
The second report, entitled “Property Taxes for Funding Public Education: Ohio’s Unique Method for Controlling Tax Increases,” was prepared with the Education Tax Policy Institute, a respected research arm of education groups. It makes the case that Ohio needs to figure out a better way to ensure that school districts have a stable and secure source of revenue to pay for operations. More on HB920.
We don’t have that system now. Instead, school districts must go back to voters again and again just to keep revenue in pace with inflation. Since the law, known as House Bill 920, was enacted in 1976 to protect property owners from unvoted tax increases, school districts have placed 9,800 levies on the ballot – enough on average for every school district in Ohio to have a levy on the ballot every other year! Over that time frame, Ohio voters have on average voted to increase their local property taxes more than their taxes would have increased automatically had the House Bill 920 cap not been in place. Yet, what we hear from voters is that they are tired of so many ballot issues.
Just as all of this mess was created over the years, the state can’t put all of this into place at once, however. The state will need to develop and then follow a plan to phase in over time any revenue increases to pay for an improved education system. It cannot possibly be done all at once.
We look forward to seeing what the governor will propose to transform education in Ohio. This is the year to take those first steps toward transformation, so that years later we can look back on this time with the knowledge that we did what we needed to do in Ohio to make a significant difference in how we provide public education for children.