NORTH JACKSON School funding problems addressed

The state Legislature did not fix the funding system, but just 'tweaked' it, says an advocate of changing the system.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NORTH JACKSON -- Ohio's school funding system is broken, unconstitutional and in need of an overhaul.
That was the message delivered at Monday's school funding meeting in the Jackson-Milton High School gym.
More than 100 citizens, school officials and politicians attended a presentation on school funding in Ohio, which was sponsored by the North Jackson Citizens Association.
William Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for the Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, discussed what he said were inadequacies in the funding system that need to be fixed.
Phillis said that, in the early 1990s, a handful of school districts in southeastern Ohio sued the state, citing unequal funding distributions. Since then, about 570 of Ohio's 612 school districts have joined the suit, Phillis pointed out.
The southeastern Ohio districts "formed a coalition that found the entire system wasn't serving the districts in Ohio," Phillis said.
Supreme Court rulings
Beginning five years ago, the Ohio Supreme Court issued several rulings, including one March 24, 1997 -- the DeRolph decision -- that said the funding system in place was inefficient and needed to be redone.
Legislators and other government officials did little to address the problems, however, Phillis said. "They didn't overhaul the system; they just tweaked it around the edges," Phillis said.
Phillis mentioned that the DeRolph decision identified several problems state officials needed to repair:
* An over-reliance on property taxes as a funding source.
* The lack of a relationship between per-pupil funding and the level of actual educational cost.
* The loan fund system's being set up as a requirement for districts to borrow money to meet expenses.
* Inadequate money being spent to upgrade school facilities.
Phillis said a May 2000 Ohio Supreme Court decision found these problems still needed to be addressed. He added that other factors, such as too many unfunded mandates and "phantom revenue," have kept the system from being constitutional.
As an example of an unfunded mandate, he cited required special education programs that are not adequately funded. Phantom revenue refers to funding techniques that make a school district appear richer than it really is, he added.
Compromise
In September 2001, the Ohio Supreme Court reached a compromise with state officials that revised part of the school funding formula, Phillis said. The decision, which declared several changes constitutional, failed to deal with the major problems of unfunded mandates and over-reliance on property taxes as funding sources, he said.
"Now, the same scenario is being played out as in 1997, and it's up to citizens" to address these issues, Phillis said.
Local residents will have an opportunity to join a statewide bus caravan to Columbus on Nov. 13 to promote fair and adequate funding for Ohio's public schools.
A bus will leave the parking lot at the former Austintown Phar-Mor, 4755 Mahoning Ave., at 9 a.m. that day.
Contact Olin E. Harkleroad, 11349 Mahoning Ave., North Jackson 44451, or call him at (330) 538-2162 for more information. The cost is $20 per person, and reservations are due by next Tuesday. The caravan is sponsored by the coalition.