Church leaders urge restoration of funding

By Marc Kovac

Education reform helps ease the financial and learning disparities among Ohio’s school districts, clergymen said.

COLUMBUS — Church leaders urged lawmakers to restore Gov. Ted Strickland’s education and school funding reform package to the state budget.

“We speak out for comprehensive public education reform because justice means returning to every child in the state full access to a quality public education,” said Bishop Bruce Ough, representing the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church. “There are no throw-away children. There are no children more deserving than others. Anything less is unsatisfactory, immoral and unjust.”

Bishop Ough joined about 30 people for a prayer vigil and press conference Tuesday at the Statehouse focused on education reform. They and others are advocating this week on behalf of various issues as lawmakers finalize a budget for the next two fiscal years — a process that will include cutting $2 billion to $3 billion in spending.

Church groups urged lawmakers to adopt education reform as a means of alleviating the financial and learning disparities that exist among Ohio’s school districts.

“Poor children are more likely to attend schools that are underfunded, overcrowded and underachieving,” Bishop Ough said. “Public education has become a mirror of the rapidly increasing divide between communities that have and those that have not.”

Bishop Thomas Breidenthal, representing the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Southern Ohio, said education reform included in the version of the budget passed by the Ohio House is “a good beginning” and “the minimum first step we must take toward a system that bases achievement on hard work and high standard’s, not on one’s income, color or ZIP code.”

Many of the provisions included by the Democrat-controlled chamber were stripped from the legislation by the Republican-led Ohio Senate.

Vigil speakers also said they opposed the governor’s recent announcement to allow slot machines at horse racing tracks to help balance the budget. Instead, they said a tax increase should be considered to generate the funds needed to pay for the state’s schools and needed services.

“Justice means we will start paying for public education and stop preying on those least able to afford it,” Bishop Ough said.

Bishop Breidenthal added, “We should be willing to bear the burden of taxation for a fair education.”

mkovac@dixcom.com