A call for thorough review of open enrollment in Ohio
Heated confirmation hearings and a razor-edge 51-50 Senate vote to appoint Betsy DeVos secretary of the U.S. Department of Education last month has intensified the buzz – and the controversy – over the value of school-choice programs throughout the United States.
Most of the controversy has centered on the academic performance and above-board financial integrity of charter schools. Indeed in Ohio, charter schools have been the focus of a mountain of investigations, reform movements and legislative oversight over the past 15 years.
Meanwhile, however, the longest-running form of school choice in the Buckeye State has received relatively scant attention since its inception as a pilot program by the state Legislature in 1989. That program, open enrollment, has been gaining increasing scrutiny in recent times among parents and educational leaders for what some view as its adverse fiscal and academic impact on some school systems statewide.
As Vindicator Reporter Justin Wier reported in a comprehensive examination of open-enrollment policies throughout Mahoning County in a front-page story in Sunday’s Vindicator, the 28-year evolution of the program has produced its fair share of winners and losers.
Among the winners are Austintown Local Schools, which have expanded enrollment, offerings and financial security with the addition of nearly 800 students from other districts – mostly Youngstown City Schools.
In contrast, Youngstown City stands as the county’s biggest loser from open enrollment. It has seen a mass exodus of more than 1,500 students on top of the loss of additional thousands of students and tax dollars to private and charter schools.
From our perspective, it appears as if the pilot program has expanded far beyond its original intent. Open enrollment, which still technically remains a pilot program, has increasingly been used by school districts to solidify their financial footing.
Unforeseen consequences
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, agrees. The candidate for governor said, “I don’t think that the legislators that put forward open enrollment would have envisioned what’s happening now. Some of the school districts in poor urban and rural areas are trying to hold on to every student they can to have a functioning school district.”
Schiavoni in 2015 co-sponsored legislation that would have required the Ohio Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive study of the economic, education and social effects of open enrollment in Ohio districts and submit its findings to the state Legislature for action.
Unfortunately, that legislation died an ignominious death in committee in the last session of the General Assembly. Its reintroduction likely would suffer a similar fate in the 2017-18 legislative session.
Instead, we would urge comprehensive study of open enrollment without the Legislature lighting the spark. Perhaps Ohio Gov. John Kasich could assemble a task force of stakeholders in open enrollment – Education Department leaders, school district winners and losers, parents, lawmakers and others – to intensely study the current policy, have public hearings across the state and then funnel recommendations to department heads and state legislators.
Clearly, there’s a crying need for more meaty understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of open enrollment. One academic study conducted in 2015, titled “The Impact of Inter-district Open Enrollment in Mahoning County Public Schools: A Decade of Choice” by Youngstown State University education Professor Karen Larwin and Mahoning County Educational Services Center Superintendent Ron Iarussi, offered some insights. That study concluded that students who opted out of their district of residence showed no negative impact on academic achievement and in some cases demonstrated improved performance.
A report from state Auditor David Yost last fall that showed some school districts in the state could save more than $1 million by downsizing lenient open-enrollment policies serves as another compelling case for Ohio to launch a comprehensive review to ensure optimal operation and effectiveness of this popular but under-the-radar form of school choice.