COLUMBIANA CO. Official: Back struggle for school funds

Speakers said Ohio's school-funding policy is politically based.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
COLUMBIANA -- Columbiana Superintendent Ron Iarussi urged the crowd gathered at Columbiana High School to spread the word about the financial struggles facing Ohio's public schools.
Around 150 people attended a school funding meeting Monday organized by Columbiana County superintendents.
"I'm sure everyone here is here because they are concerned about education, so we're preaching to the choir, but that's OK," Iarussi said.
Western Reserve Superintendent Chuck Swindler, South Range Superintendent Jim Hall, and William Phillis, head of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy, were the main speakers at the session.
"If it looks like a shell game, it probably is," Swindler said of the complex way state funds are shifted before they reach local school districts. The shifting of money from the state results in the taxpayers being asked to carry more of the financial burden of public schools.
"Ohio's school funding policy is not about finance, it's about politics," he added.
Hall said if education was a do-it-yourself proposition, a couple with four children would pay nearly $500,000 over a 23-year period to get all of their children through kindergarten through 12th grade.
Change in funding
He said that two years ago, Mahoning County received state funding for 449 needy children to attend Head Start preschool. This year the county received funding for 150 children, which is not his idea of a No Child Left Behind program that is working.
"Legislators take an oath that they will defend the constitutions of the United States and of Ohio, yet they know they are in violation of the Ohio Constitution and do nothing," he said.
Phillis laid the groundwork for and was superintendent of the Columbiana County Joint Vocational School in the 1970s. He said Ohio led the nation in vocational education after that because state law required vocational opportunities for students, and the state funded vocational education.
He said the problem with school funding now is that although equal education opportunities are required by law for all Ohio children, politicians are not providing adequate funding. He said before the state can decide how much education costs, state officials need to study what is needed in the classrooms, and that hasn't happened.
"School funding is not rocket science," he said.
Phillis said the financial problems facing many Ohio school districts are not the result of spending policy, but of the state's funding policy, he said. "It's like trying to drive a car 100 miles when you only have gas money for 75."
Send a message
He urged the crowd to send a message to Columbus by voting for members of the General Assembly, the Ohio Supreme Court and for governor who will respect the Ohio Constitution and its demand that each Ohio child should have the opportunity for a high-quality education no matter where they live.
Phillis said he is concerned about Ohio because Ohio is first in the nation in support of charter schools and $344 million has been shifted from the public school district's treasury to charter schools.
He said college tuition has increased so much in Ohio that many college students are attending college out of state because out-of-state tuition is cheaper. He said 90,000 15- to 44-year-olds have left Ohio in the last three years. Ohio once led the nation in job creation and is now 49th or 50th.
"Send a message to Columbus that the current system is harming lots of children across the state, and the time to fix it is now," Phillis said.