COLUMBUS Funding plan needs study, says chief of state schools

The House plan ties school attendance to state funding.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- A proposed method of funding public schools contained in the House-passed, two-year, $48.7 billion state budget should be shelved until the effect on schools is known, the state school superintendent says.
Susan Zelman, superintendent of public instruction, was speaking of a proposal in the two-year state budget bill pending before a Senate committee that would fund public schools based on average monthly attendance.
She spoke Tuesday before the Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee.
Currently, public schools are funded on the basis of a three-year average enrollment in October.
According to the proposal in the House-passed state budget, the 2003-04 school year's funding would be based on an October head count.
The 2004-05 school year funding would be based on how many students attend daily over the course of a year, according to the proposal, the incentive being to encourage students to attend school to get state money.
Decrease in aid
According to estimates from legislative researchers, the proposed change would cost public school districts $346 million in state aid in the budget's second year if it's implemented.
"We do need incentives to help students attend and stay in school," Zelman told senators. "However, any policy changes that decrease the fiscal capacity of our most needy districts would be counterproductive."
Zelman told senators that the proposed change should be referred to a task force that Republican Gov. Bob Taft is creating to study how public schools are financed.
The task force, to include educators, state lawmakers and business community leaders, will be appointed soon, Taft spokesman Orest Holubec said, with an eye toward making a recommendation to the GOP-controlled Legislature by the end of the year.
Taft also supports taking the House's proposed school-funding plan and studying it in the task force, Holubec added.
State Rep. Jon Husted, a Kettering Republican, authored the proposed changes.
He said the current school-funding system requires the state to pay for students who do not show up for classes or have left a school system entirely.
"I still believe this is the best direction for the state to head," Husted said. "But I want to see what the Senate proposes as an alternative."
The numbers
Overall, the House-passed budget spends $9.3 billion on education in the budget's first year, and $9.49 billion in its second year.
The Senate's top Republican said pulling the House's school-funding proposal out of the budget might have some merit.
"This may be sound policy, but it needs to be debated in another venue," Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester, said.
Zelman also asked senators to restore programs cut by the House, including professional development and support programs for new teachers.
The current two-year, $44 billion state budget runs through June 30. The new two-year spending plan must be in place by July 1.