PUBLIC EDUCATION Coalition demands changes be made in how Ohio funds school districts

The coalition leader believes more money must be given to poor school districts.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
COLUMBUS -- The head of the coalition of public schools that successfully sued the state over how it funds schools says Ohio needs to continue to move away from a reliance on property taxes.
Bill Phillis, the executive director of the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, says he doesn't believe the state has completely overhauled the way it pays to educate the approximate 1.8 million school children in Ohio as ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Four times, the Ohio high court has held the funding system unconstitutional. The high court has held that an over-reliance on property taxes has led to wide educational disparities between so-called "rich" and "poor" public school systems.
In response to the court case, brought by the coalition, a group of more than 500 poor and urban school systems, the state has spent billions of dollars on primary and secondary schools -- much of it to help lower wealth districts.
State officials have also poured resources into school construction and renovation and the overhaul of tests and curricula for schoolchildren.
However, property taxes continue to be a large part of how public schools are funded in the state.
Criticism
"The state has in fact established a school-facilities program," Phillis acknowledged. "It's certainly better than nothing. Before [the school-funding lawsuit], there was nothing."
Phillis also credited the state with pumping up state aid, primarily that going to some poorer school systems.
"That has increased funds to the lower wealth districts, but it hasn't brought the state up to where it should be," he said.
In addition, recent state budget cuts and other issues have reduced the growth of funds for many public schools, Phillis said.
Phillis pointed to what he called a "record" number of school-related issues on this past Tuesday's special-election ballot.
According to the Ohio Department of Education, voters in 81 school districts decided 103 school issues, the most since the state education department began keeping track. In the Mahoning Valley area, there were nine school issues on the ballot, and all but two failed.
Applauding efforts
At least one state lawmaker says he believes the state has done a lot for public schools since the high court has ruled on the school-funding issue.
"We have put more money in," said state Rep. Jim Hoops, a Napoleon Republican and a member of a task force appointed by GOP Gov. Bob Taft to study school funding.
"We've put together a school-facilities commission and funded it," said Hoops, also a member of the Ohio House Education Committee.
"The only issue we haven't fully addressed is the issue of reliance on property taxes," Hoops said. "The problem is, if you change property taxes, what do you replace it with?"
Other lawmakers see things differently.
Ohio Senate Minority Leader Greg DiDonato acknowledged that the state has put more money into public schools in recent years, but he says the state also has placed more mandates on school districts, many times without additional funding.
"A portion of the new money has been dictated as far as how it's going to be used," said DiDonato, a Dennison Democrat.
Task force
The panel appointed by Taft to study school funding -- the Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Financing Student Success -- is expected to develop ideas to be included in the next two-year state budget that must be enacted by July 1.
The current two-year, $48 billion state budget runs through June 30.
Paul Marshall, the task force's executive director, said he expects the task force to issue its recommendations by the end of the year.
A task-force committee is developing a new school funding formula that generally targets funds to public school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty.
"The districts with higher rates of poverty have the biggest challenges," Marshall said.
Other task force committees are developing recommendations in operations and efficiency and other areas.
But, in Phillis' opinion, the task force isn't going far enough.
"The state should commission a panel of experts. That's the way other states have done it," Phillis said.
"It seems to me [the governor's task force is] spending a lot of time talking about spending the same amount of money differently," Phillis said.