THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
With a shot of new funding to low-wealth districts and a sizable propertytax cut for Ohio senior citizens, Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday aimed to turn his campaign promises on school funding into action.
Strickland used his first State of the State speech to call for the elimination of most school vouchers and push for bigger annual school-funding increases in the upcoming two-year budget — 3 percent, instead of the 2.2 percent in the last budget.
He also wants a 22 percent increase in poverty-based assistance, and about $35 million more in parity aid, money designed to help equalize the disparities between poor and wealthy districts.
Although parity-aid funding now goes to 80 percent of districts, Strickland would limit it to the poorest 60 percent, eliminating such money for about 120 unspecified districts.
However, all districts still would get the same amount of overall state money as they do now, he said.
Strickland gave credit to Republican legislative leaders for the work they’ve done to improve school funding since the Ohio Supreme Court ruled four times in the DeRolph case that the system is unconstitutional.
„But there’s much work left to be done,“ Strickland said.
„My proposals do not solve all the problems of our schools, but they represent a major advance toward providing adequate and equitable funding for our primary and secondary schools.“
In an effort to reduce reliance on local property taxes, Strickland proposed a property-tax cut for any homeowners who are at least 65 or who are disabled.
Expanding on Ohio’s current homestead exemption, which covers 220,000 homeowners, Strickland would exempt the first $25,000 of the market value of a home. The expanded exemption would apply to 775,000 homeowners, saving them an estimated $386 million over two years.
The state would cover the lost local property-tax revenue. That, plus increased funding and other accounting maneuvers, would increase the state’s share of school funding from 49.5 percent to 54 percent, Strickland said.
Democrats are holding up Strickland as a savior of Ohio’s ailing schoolfunding system.
„It may be that this budget does meet all of those issues that we’ve been trying to deal with since DeRolph for all these years,“ said state Senate Minority Leader Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo.
Except for the program in Cleveland, Strickland would eliminate the new GOP-created statewide voucher system known as EdChoice, in which students in poor-performing schools get state money to attend private school.
About 3,000 kids use vouchers — $4,250 for elementary schools and $5,000 for high school — at a cost of roughly $13 million a year.
„Wastefulness and giveaways can no longer be tolerated,“ Strickland said. „That’s why my budget eliminates the EdChoice voucher program.“
Strickland also wants to prohibit for-profit management companies from running charter schools, a proposal aimed at the likes of Akron businessman David Brennan, owner of White Hat Management Inc., which operates 31 schools in Ohio, including two in Columbus. Charter schools are taxpayerfunded but privately operated.
But House Speaker Jon A. Husted, R-Kettering, has made expanding school choice one of his top goals in the past two years. Although some Republicans like Strickland’s talk of more accountability for charter schools, they don’t want charters, or vouchers, to go away.
„He is denying families who live in a public school system that is failing them the opportunity to get their kids into a school environment that is healthier, safer and is educating their children,“ said Rep. Matthew J. Dolan, R-Novelty, chairman of the House Finance Committee, which gets first crack at Strickland’s budget next week.
Lisa Masterson, whose daughter, Bailey Wickwire, will start kindergarten this fall, is counting on the voucher program so Bailey can attend St. Mary Magdalene School on the West Side.
„Will I get to use it for her? Or will it be taken away before there’s a chance to use it?“ Masterson wondered. „It’s an emotional roller coaster with my child’s education.“
Dispatch reporter Jennifer Smith Richards contributed to this story.
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