The football field isn't the only place where winning counts

EDITOR:
Last Saturday Ohio put its reputation and pride on the line as the Ohio State Buckeyes confronted the Michigan Wolverines. We spared nothing to assure that our team was prepared to triumph over Michigan. We have an extraordinary facility which was recently improved and updated at a significant cost. We also have every conceivable piece of training equipment, a large and dedicated staff, that is, a very low player/coach ratio, and every thing we need to prepare our team. The culmination of this effort was 60 minutes of playing time with the purpose of vanquishing our opponent. At the end of the game, we won and all our investment was worth it.
In reality, there is a far more significant competition that exists between our two states. Both states are responsible for education their children. In the future, children from both states will be competing for the best jobs in the Great Lakes region. How will the children of Ohio stack up with those of Michigan? What will we provide for our children to give them a competitive edge? How much are we willing to invest in the future of our children? Let's look at what we are doing right now.
The state foundation level for schools in Michigan is $7,600 per pupil per year. In Ohio the state foundation level is $4,949 per year. In other words, Ohio is committed to investing just 65 percent as much in each of its school children as Michigan invests in its children. Why do you think that Michigan is willing to make such an investment? Should we in Ohio be content to let our children who will eventually compete in the same economy, enter this competition with less invested in their preparation? The answer resounding from our legislature and our citizens should be an emphatic "No!"
The day before the recent elections, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the state senator from Montgomery County who crafted the current school funding "fix" announced that "all districts have enough (money) to provide an adequate education." He added, "The state is responsible to provide an adequate amount; it is not responsible to meet every want and wish of the community. Everyone with an operating levy on the ballot is going beyond adequacy and choosing to do more." The senator is apparently not interested in Ohio children being "Number 1." Unfortunately for the children involved, many of those levies failed three weeks ago and children in those districts are placed at risk.
Be assured that every district that had an issue on the ballot needed the money or it wouldn't have asked for it. I've been responsible for some levy campaigns and I can assure the public, you don't subject yourself and the staff to a levy campaign because it's lots of fun. It is a hard and demanding task and diverts energy away from the real job of managing schools.
Unfortunately, Ohio's fixation for being "Number 1" in collegiate football does not extend to being "Number 1" in public education. On the contrary, for many years we have been "Number 50" in terms of our school facilities. Do you realize that West Virginia spends more money per child on education than does Ohio? For years I've heard jokes about how backward West Virginia is, but the reality is that for several years West Virginia has been trying to improve its schools. It is doing so by increasing its expenditure on education. Now that they are ahead of us in our fiscal commitment to education, do you suppose they will soon be telling "Ohio" jokes?
ROBERT P. SHREVE, Ed. D.
Westerville
X The writer is superintendent emeritus of Mahoning County schools and past president of the Buckeye Association of School Administrators.