JEFFERSON —
Ashtabula County’s Economic Development Steering Committee steered into unchartered territory Monday morning — school funding in Ohio.
Chairman Brian Diehl said that while school funding is not part of the economic development committee’s charter mission, education is and affects the group’s ability to attract commercial and industrial investment in the county.
“School systems, the quality of education, are items we need to market and brand ourselves,” said Diehl. He said that when job creators look at a community and its quality of life, the public schools and the students who graduate from them are deciding factors.
“We need to be able to say ‘This is a good place to educate your kids,’” Diehl said.
State Rep. Casey Kozlowski, R-Pierpont, spoke to the group about the state of public school funding in Ohio. He said the state is using a complex bridge formula to determine how much money local districts receive from the state, but by July 1, 2013, a new funding model must be in place. The legislature is holding public meetings to gather input and Kozlowski said he wants to hear constituents’ ideas on the subject.
Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s method of funding education is unconstitutional, but subsequent efforts have not been able to solve the issue of inequitable funding between rich and poor districts.
In fiscal year 2011, state funding accounted for 45.5 percent of public districts’ revenues. Local taxes provided 44.6 percent and federal sources accounted for 9.9 percent.
But from district to district, the percentages vary widely. In some districts local funding is only 26.7 percent of the revenues, while in others it is 65.9 percent.
Kozlowski said that while some will argue the need for the state to pick up more of the tab, he feels there is an advantage to keeping funding locally.
“You have to remember one advantage to local revenue is that it stays local,” he said. “If you send that money to Columbus, how much of it will you get back?”
That’s a question on Commissioner Daniel Claypool’s mind, who grilled Kozlowski on the state’s unwillingness to release some of its excess revenues to local governments and schools. Claypool said Ohioans paid their taxes but the governor and lawmakers refuse to return the money to them for services.
“Now you are sitting on excess revenues and refuse to acknowledge any hardship in police, fire and education,” Claypool said.
Kozlowski said lawmakers actually put more money into state aid for schools during the current fiscal year than they did in the prior one. However, the phase-out of personal property and utility taxes, declining real estate values and loss of federal stimulus money have reduced combined revenues to Ashtabula County districts by more than $6 million in the current fiscal year, Claypool said.
The representative countered that the state experienced an economic downturn during that time and that districts were forewarned of the decline in tax revenues so they could plan accordingly.
Kozlowski said lawmakers will take a lot of factors into consideration as they develop the funding plan, including the use of technology, successful models in other states and consolidation of districts and services. Ohio has 612 traditional school districts and spends 4.6 percent of its taxable resources on education. Its students’ Quality Counts achievement rating (2012) is 15th. Pennsylvania, with 500 districts, spends 4.3 percent of its taxable resources and its students ranked 7th.
One of the committee members noted that even if a new funding plan is adopted by next year, it can take years to implement the plan, and the leadership and philosophies can change during that time. An evidence-based model was used during Ted Strickland’s administration, but Gov. John Kasich dismantled that after he took office.
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