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Joe
Uecker
State
Representative
0/15/06
School
Funding
I
have received a lot of email lately and read a few
articles on school funding.
With the upcoming levy season approaching I thought
I’d share a few thoughts.
I
truly emphasize with everyone’s frustration.
For years we have all watched this “train
wreck” approaching.
Now that I am one of the “conductors” on that
train, I doubly feel the frustration.
To carry the metaphor further, I’m on top of the
runaway train and can’t figure out how to stop it.
I
heard from those who feel that the legislature is failing
to obey the Ohio Supreme Court.
What I have found out is that nearly every lawyer
has his or her own interpretation of the “DeRolf”
decision. After
hearing from many, it is my belief that the courts were
obviously concerned with the variance of funding between
affluent districts and those with low property values.
This was an obvious negative aspect of the
“over-reliance” on property taxes for school funding. I
do not believe the Court ordered the legislature to revamp
the funding mechanism but rather to fix the extreme
variance between districts.
For the Courts to tell the Legislature to revamp a
law would have violated the separation of powers.
Now I am sitting here “tongue in cheek” because
we both know this happens all the time!
As for the current funding law, the courts should
not have been concerned with the “procedure” but by
the
Ohio
constitution should only have been concerned with the
“policy”.
There
are only so many ways to fund a program, whether it is
schools, medicaid, courts, etc.
Property tax is simply one of them.
I for one do not want to see
Ohio
use the method a few states use whereby the school board
meets and decides how much it will cost to run the school
that year, then sends EVERYONE a bill for their portion.
Our system is far from perfect, but I think it is
better than others.
I
believe the legislature did try to satisfy the courts by
basically creating a funding system that uses a formula to
try to achieve fairness between school districts.
One common factor in this argument is that no one
from the education side of the fence has ever advised the
legislature how much they need to fund an educational
program. How
can anyone attempt to fund a “fair and adequate”
public educational system without knowing how much they
need to spend? Just give me a number. For
the past ten years, the amount the state contributes per
pupil has steadily increased each year.
I
keep hearing and reading about how the “state” keeps
reducing the amount it gives to our school districts.
This is a little misleading. When I look at the
numbers, it paints a different picture. Take for instance
the
Milford
School District
. Since 2002, the enrollment as reported to the state went
up 7% and the state’s funding to the school district
went up 11%. Specifically, in 2002, the State of
Ohio
sent the
Milford
School District
$17,248,061 and in 2005,
Milford
received $19,164,204, an increase of about $2 million. Likewise,
in the West Clermont District, between 2002 and 2005,
enrollment as reported to the state went from 9,049
students to 8,314, a reduction of 735 students.
Revenue from the State of
Ohio
went from $26.2 million to $28 million, almost $2 million
more. Now I get a little anxious when hear someone say
that the state has “reduced” their school funding.
These numbers do not show this.
I can’t find more money to give to our schools,
but if the state has done something to make running
schools more expensive, I’d like to know because that IS
something I can work on.
Since
1991, the state has more than doubled what it spends on
education. You and I both know that inflation has not
doubled costs. On
top of all this, the state spends over $2 million EACH DAY
on building and remodeling schools.
As an overall aspect of the state’s total budget,
approximately 40% is spent on education, 40% on Medicaid,
and 20% on all else (security, courts, administration,
etc.). When you increase revenue to one area, you have to
choose who you are going to be saying no to in other
areas.
Yes,
I know costs go up. They
go up for everyone on everything – except salaries and
paychecks. Many in our district simply cannot afford
higher taxes. Many
will be willing to make sacrifices.
I know I will. I vote for every school levy for a
more selfish reason – property value. You
only have to get stuck once with trying to sell a house in
a lower than average school district to see why you should
do everything possible to help your local district.
How ridiculous is it when someone says they don’t
want to raise taxes, they just want more money from the
state… as if the state’s money comes from somewhere
else. When the
state increases its share to the schools, that means it
reduces some other service someone else was getting. Now I
don’t have too much a problem with this, but obviously
there is a bottom to the “pot of gold”.
Can
we do more? Yes I think so, but we can’t do it all at
once. The budget (and the voters) simply cannot handle it
all. I think
the schools also need to constantly look at ways to hold
down costs as well. For
instance, I was really shocked recently to hear that a lot
of school districts pay 100% of their employee’s health
care insurance premiums. Others have insurance policies
with ridiculously low co-pays.
These premiums are very expensive.
In the “real world” where the bottom line
determines whether or not you have a job each week, NO ONE
has these kinds of expensive benefits.
As recently as in the last five years, in my
previous employment in the public sector, I would receive
a 0 to 3 percent salary increase and get socked with a 10%
and 20% health insurance premium share increase.
For the last several years, my take home pay went
backwards. This is a nationwide trend, not an exception.
I am sure you have heard that the legislature
proposes forcing the schools to accept a statewide health
insurance program that could help keep money in the
classroom. Suffice
to say we are not too popular among educators right now.
In
my district, we are blessed with good schools and good
educators. We
have caring people who want the best for our children.
We know they have taken good stewardship with our
tax dollars. They want to do more and sometimes simply
trying to make ends meet seems impossible.
Some may not approve of certain programs.
Have you told your school board, or do you just
complain about it to others?
Get active in your child’s education; those of us
in the State House are.
Joe
Uecker
State
Representative
Ohio’s
66 District
Representing
Batavia, Goshen, Miami and Union Townships as well as the
Cities of Loveland and Milford and the Villages of Batavia
and Amelia.(614)
466-8134
District
Office (513)-248-2565
Website:
www.JoeUecker.com
Email:
Joe@JoeUecker.com |
