Plan threatens stable funding at Choffin, other vo-ed schools

By Harold Gwin

A local legislator said language in Gov. Strickland’s budget is being changed to correct the issue.

YOUNGSTOWN — Changes in state education funding in Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposed biennial budget could have a devastating effect on career tech education in cities such as Youngstown.

House Bill 1 would eliminate weighted funding for career tech programs run by individual school districts and small compacts of three or four districts. Larger joint vocational schools/tech centers such as the Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana career and technical centers wouldn’t be affected.

Weighted funding is state aid based on student enrollment.

Choffin Career & Technical Center in Youngstown is receiving $900,000 in weighted funding this year.

The school serves 515 students in 21 programs, with more than 10 percent of the students coming from schools outside of the city.

The proposed state staffing model would provide funding for only one career tech teacher for every 10 core subject teachers in a district’s high schools, said Joseph Meranto, Choffin director. Youngstown has 35 career tech teachers now, 21 of them at Choffin alone, and the funding change would reduce that total number to just 10.

State Rep. Ron Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th, said the funding change appears to be an oversight in the budget document.

He said he’s spoken with the chairman of the House subcommittee working on plans for the implementation of the governor’s budget and was told that the language affecting the individual, free-standing career centers will be changed.

That’s good news, Meranto said, noting that he’s heard similar comments coming out of Columbus.

The funding, as proposed in the bill, “would really devastate career tech education across Ohio, not just Youngstown,” he said, pointing out that 60 percent of Ohio’s career tech students are being educated in the individual and compact schools.

Meranto said those schools just learned about the funding issue a few weeks ago and immediately launched a letter-writing campaign to their local legislators, urging that the proposal be changed to treat all career tech schools the same.

There have also been efforts to lobby the governor’s office and the response has been positive, he said.

The budget plan also calls for a special state committee to be created to look at how funding for the joint vocational schools should be handled in the future, and Meranto said the individual and compact schools are only asking to be a part of that study group.

“We just want to be treated fairly,” he said, adding that losing programs like those at Choffin would be extremely unfair to the young people getting an education there.

gwin@vindy.com