YOUNGSTOWN Planner: Schools are key to recovery

People will not risk their children's education to stay in a city, according to Samuel R. Staley.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- If the city is going to come back, it's going to happen in the neighborhoods, not downtown.
And if the neighborhoods are to come back, it's going to be because of improved schools.
That's what 20 years of research and analysis on urban policy has shown Samuel R. Staley, president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.
The institute analyzes state and local government programs, taxes and regulations and offers policy alternatives. Staley calls the Columbus-based institute a market-oriented organization. He acknowledges there's a conservative leaning but shuns the label.
Staley talked Thursday about education in the state and its role in urban development with Vindicator writers.
Finding a role
Youngstown needs to take a realistic stock of itself and its economic role, Staley said. Cities typically fail to assess their role in the economy, he said. Instead, officials pine for a return of past glory days.
Youngstown State University will be crucial; education and high-tech training are keys to the future, he said.
Downtown redevelopment isn't as critical as people think to reviving a city, Staley said. Instead, he finds neighborhoods to be the center of such efforts.
And the research is clear that schools are the main factor in whether people decide to come to or leave city neighborhoods, Staley said.
Many people like a dense and diverse place to live, which cities offer. In fact, some suburbs are turning into more urbanlike settings with denser housing, he said.
But people will leave cities and won't return if they don't consider the schools adequate, he said.
"They will not risk their children," Staley said.
Education issues
The Buckeye Institute's free-market philosophy means it supports giving parents a full range of options and choices, and therefore vouchers.
Nonetheless, the group views reforming the public-school system as essential because that is where a majority of children will be educated.
The Ohio Supreme Court overstepped its bounds when justices went beyond declaring school funding unconstitutional, Staley said. The court's suggestion of school-funding levels amounts to making policy, which isn't its role, he said.
The Buckeye Institute doesn't see much evidence to show that more money improves education, anyway, Staley said. In fact, research shows that socio-economic factors are 85 percent to 90 percent responsible for pupil success. Schools contribute only about 10 percent to 15 percent to pupil achievement, he said.
"It's not the amount of money; it's how the money is spent," he said.
Charter schools are using their money to do innovative things that teach children differently and improve pupil performance, Staley said. And, such schools are pushing public schools in that direction, too, which is good for education, he said.
rgsmith@vindy.com