OHIO Protesters call for better school funding from state

The governor says the state is facing a $100 million shortfall for schools.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
COLUMBUS -- A call for change in the way Ohio pays for schooling went out Wednesday against the backdrop of more grim money news from the governor's office.
The announcement of a $100 million shortfall for schools came just hours after hundreds of students, teachers and education advocates rallied at the Statehouse to say Ohio isn't doing enough to help local districts fund schools.
The "Project Chalkboard" education rally drew thousands of supporters, including representatives from several Mahoning Valley public school systems.
Teachers' assertion
Sally Schneider and Bob Koza, teachers at Brookfield Local Schools in Trumbull County, said the state's school-funding system is failing pupils. "Two levies have failed, and 15 of our certified staff are losing their jobs, which is going to have a negative effect on student achievement," Koza said.
"Unfortunately, everybody is being taxed out," Schneider said.
Schneider and Koza said school-funding issues have gotten worse since the state Supreme Court first ruled the state's school-funding system unconstitutional in 1997.
"We're losing money now; we're not gaining money at all," Schneider said. "Ultimately students will suffer."
In fact, the state is facing a $100 million shortfall for schools caused by unexpectedly high enrollment and a new way of counting pupils, Gov. Bob Taft and the Department of Education said Wednesday.
Budget officials planned to tell lawmakers how they will address the shortfall, which must be fixed by the end of the fiscal year June 30.
"We're going to come up with the dollars to fund that," Taft said.
Enrollment figures
Enrollment numbers were about 9,000 pupils higher than expected when schools submitted their final numbers last month, J.C. Benton, education department spokesman, said.
Schools also counted 7,000 more special-education pupils this year over last. Special-education pupils require additional state funding because of their need for individual attention.
Benton attributed the enrollment increase to pupils at private schools returning to public schools because of concerns about tuition, as well as the state's new system for counting children.
Each pupil now has an individual identification number, making it easier to count all pupils. That will help with more accurate counts in the future but hurt this year as the more realistic enrollment figures were tallied, Benton said.
According to the Equal Education and Fair Taxation Task Force, 70 percent of Ohio's schools will be in deficit by 2008 to the sum of some $5 billion. In March, 228 school districts had levies on the ballot, the most on any ballot since 1992 and the third highest number since 1970.
Kellie Nevo, president of the Lakeview Schools Support Association, which represents noncertified staff members in the Trumbull County district, said the state's method of paying for public schools has to change.
"There has to be a much more efficient way to fund the schools," Nero said.
Nero's husband, Rocco Nero, is superintendent of the Bristol Schools, also in Trumbull County.
"The property owner is fed up," Rocco Nero said. "They're not against education; they're against taxes."
What they want
Educators and supporters who turned out for the rally want lawmakers to shift the burden for school funding from local property owners to the state. Organizers hope to pressure lawmakers to adhere to the recommendations of the 1997 court decision that found the current method of school funding unconstitutional.
Leading up to Wednesday's event were Mahoning Valley rallies in the Bristol, Lakeview, Brookfield, Champion, Newton Falls, Weathersfield, Liberty, Campbell and Canfield schools, as well as at the Trumbull County Career & amp; Technical Center.