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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > May > 11 > Entry
Editorial: Legislative meddling cost Dayton big
The settlement the Ohio Department of Education struck this month with Dayton Public Schools vindicates the district and also nets the schools at least $7.1 million. While school officials are thrilled to have the money, in some ways it comes too late.
In 2006, the legislature blocked a financial deal to end Dayton’s dispute with the state about how it counted student enrollment. That helped push Dayton toward its ill-fated 2007 try for a huge levy. After that request went down, the district made devastating cuts that schools today are still climbing back from.
The story begins with the state’s broken process for counting students — a process that urban districts across the state knew was a crock. The state told Dayton, year after year, that it was undercounting charter school students, requiring the district to redirect more money to those schools.
In 2006, school officials decided to dig into the state’s enrollment data. Using newly available state data to better identify where students were attending school (or not), Dayton found hundreds of kids who were counted more than once at charter schools, and many others who had transferred out of charters or were otherwise missing.
Over a three-year period, Dayton estimated it lost as much as $14 million.
At first, the Ohio Department of Education was receptive to Dayton’s complaint, which it had shared with Cincinnati and other urban districts. Settlement talks began, and the department was leaning toward giving millions to districts that had been cheated.
Eventually a deal was struck to essentially split the difference, with the state paying back about half of what the districts said they were due. In early 2007, Dayton hoped that money would at least shrink the size of the levy it was contemplating.
It wasn’t to be.
Republican lawmakers, including then-Speaker of the House Jon Husted and then-Sen. Jeff Jacobson, were frustrated by what they viewed as constant enrollment revisions by the education department that ran up the cost of what the legislature had to spend on education. They ultimately scuttled the settlement, outraging urban school leaders and prompting Cincinnati to go to court.
The legislature was wrong to get involved, a contention that was borne out by the fact that Cincinnati won at trial and on appeal. Late last year, the case was finally settled just before the Ohio Supreme Court was scheduled to consider it.
The appellate court endorsed a calculation for repaying the districts that resulted in pay-outs that were close to what was being proposed way back when in the settlement talks.
Yes, Dayton’s school board made mistakes that led to the defeat of its 15.17-mill levy try in 2007. But a $7 million infusion from the state around that time could have made a real difference in reducing the levy’s size. (The tax increase would have raised $30 million annually.)
Superintendent Kurt Stanic says he will spend the money on reducing class size in early elementary grades. That’s a good plan. With the settlement money and new revenue from the 4.9-mill levy that finally passed last year, Dayton is starting to recover from the deep cuts of 2007.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
Comments
By Oldprof
May 11, 2009 9:04 AM | Link to this
Lost here is that the legislature has proof positive that the Ohio Department of Education is incompetent. How can we trust them with curricular standards and funding if they can’t even keep track of where students are enrolled? Thomas Suddes’ commentary today was spot-on; Ohio needs to quit allowing self-centered parents to demand a designer education on the public dime, and instead create a single state-wide system with country-wide districts. Public schools should serve the public interest, not the personal whims of the “parental choice” crowd.By sharkskinjacket
May 11, 2009 11:27 AM | Link to this
It’s clear that administrators in the charter schools don’t know how to count. It’s time to get Ohio back on track with respect to education and providing a good education to all children. Charter schools are unconstitutional. They don’t guarantee any child a good education, let alone all children. The grand experiment is over and it’s a failure. Time to get back to basics in Ohio. Instead of spending millions to keep kids from dropping out, change the law that actually colludes in their dropping out. If parents won’t say “no,” then the state must. Get back to basics.