Outsider's View of the Ohio School Funding Crisis

No one else has really checked the other side of the big money grab scheme dealing with reforming Ohio's school funding system. Our Ohio Governor and Legislator really did us a favor by not coming up with a fix.

In 1998 I compiled the data, produced the charts and wrote the paper: The History of the Ohio School Funding Crisis: An Outsiders Point of View . It argues against everything The Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding is trying to do to the Ohio school funding system. I welcome anyone to challenge anything in the paper. I will publish your comments.

To prepare the report I collected 1996 EMIS data from all 611 Ohio school districts. I searched for correlations between performance and several measures. These measures include expenditure per pupil, student teacher ratio, average teacher salary, teachers with masters degree, and median family income. An analysis of the actual data used by the plaintive in the DeRolph is presented. Big decisions were made based on statistical shotgun patterns.

On March 24, 1997, the Ohio Supreme court ruled that the Ohio system of school funding was unconstitutional. Specifically, Ohio's elementary and secondary public school financing system violates Section 2, Article VI of the Ohio Constitution, which mandates a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state. See: DeRolph v. State (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 193 .

On October 20, 2003, the Court ended its involvement in the case. See details: DeRolph history . The Ohio General Assembly's response was to form a Blue Ribbon Task Force that was charged to come up with recommendations to solve the problem. They made some minor recommendations but the system remains about the same as it was in 1997.

Southwest Licking School District, Ohio - Local verses State accounting

I am presently only concerned with primary and secondary public education funding in the state of Ohio. And more specifically, the funding of the Southwest Licking Local School District.

The major thrust of school reform will be the separation of state requirements and local requirements. Here are some of my thoughts:

o The District can not account for local funding going to local activities. Neither can they account for state funding going to state requirement. They should.

o With the help of data from the state, I may be able to come up with a total cost estimate of non state required activities in the District. This, for course, reveals the cost of state requirements. Does it compare with the states foundation formula?

o How do I account for shared resources? This will be a challenge. I know it is done in most other organizations. Maybe I can get the help of an accountant.

o Once the local/state entanglement is resolved. The community will know where the state money goes and then be able to vote on what extras they would like.

o The District must be forced to provide state requirements with the foundation money they are given. If they can't, then they can present a good case to the state.