Be Afraid
Ask most Ohio public school teachers if they’re worried about state support for public education, and you’ll get a frightened nod. For those “old veterans” with twenty or more years in the classroom, you might get an even louder “YES”. And there are good reasons to think the State of Ohio (the General Assembly and the Governor) believe that public education ISN’T the solution to teaching Ohio’s children. They seem to be doing everything to help it fail.
It all starts with Ohio’s State Constitution. Article VI, Section 2 states:
“The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state; but no religious or other sect, or sects, shall every have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state” (emphasis added).
Battle Lines
Even in the legal language of the 1850’s the meaning seems pretty clear. The General Assembly (the legislature) WILL do two things. First, set up a common (public) school system, or systems, throughout the state. And second, that system will not be based on a religion. Clearly while religious schools can exist, they cannot control any part of the public school funds.
There is a Constitutional mandate for public schools, and a Constitutional prohibition against using public funds for religious or “sects” schools. It’s just that simple.
The Numbers
But here in Ohio, it’s not that simple at all. There are 609 individual school districts in Ohio. The five smallest districts in Ohio have under 200 students. But the largest school districts in the state are:
Student Pop. School District*
- 47000 Columbus
- 34500 Cincinnati
- 33200 Cleveland
- 24100 Olentangy (suburban Columbus – North)
- 22000 South-Western (suburban Columbus – Southwest)
- 21300 Toledo
- 20000 Akron
- 17400 Lakota (suburban Cincinnati – North)
- 17000 Dublin (suburban Columbus – Northwest)
- 16300 Hilliard (suburban Columbus – West).
*Source – Ohio Department of Education
Maybe the issue for Republican state leaders is that five of the top ten school districts (and the three largest) are from primarily Democratic areas. And since the Legislature and Governor are committed to gerrymandering the state as Republican as possible, the students of those districts are dramatically unrepresented.
Black and White
Or maybe the issue is about “urban” versus “rural”. The State Assembly is dominated by members from rural areas of the state. The Governor himself grew up in a rural village. The problems of urban school districts are “alien” to their “small town” upbringing: they don’t relate.
And this clash of backgrounds includes inherent racism. The urban districts, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron (and Dayton farther down the list) are 75% or more minority. Even the “suburban” school districts in the top ten are 35% to 50% minorities. (For comparison: I taught in the Southwest Licking School District, 64th largest with 4890 students, and 29% minorities, and went to high school in the Wyoming School District, 224th largest with 1880 students and 25% minority) (ODE).
Most of the decision makers in the Assembly and the Governor’s office went to schools that were overwhelmingly white.
Follow the Money
88.6% of Ohio’s school children go to public schools. Of the remaining kids, 8.8% go to private schools, and 2.7% are home-schooled (Policy Matters). The Ohio state government spends about $8 Billion a year on public schools. But the State is also spending over $1 Billion for private schools, including religious and “sect” schools, as part of a “voucher” program. That’s over 10% of the state money that goes to education (Signal). And if that “sounds” like a violation of the State Constitution, Article VI, Section 2: it is. A Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge ruled that a couple of weeks ago (Ohio Capital Journal).
That 10% could make a big difference to public schools. It’s a billion dollars of all Ohio taxpayers money going to private, often religious, schools. But Common Pleas is the lowest court in the Ohio hierarchy, with the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court to go. The Supreme Court, now six Republicans (including the Governor’s son) and one Democrat, may ignore the Constitutional language to further their political agenda. They’ve done it before.
Wild Wild West
Ohio has been called the “Wild, Wild West” of nearly unregulated private schooling. There are 1355 private schools, and another 330 Charter schools in the state. Those schools not only spend private money, now they are using state voucher money without supervision. The most egregious example was the online school, ECOT, which fraudulently took over $117 million in public school money. It was closed in 2018. But, the owner of ECOT, William Lager, made large political contributions to legislative leaders. He was never charged with any crimes.
ECOT is gone, (and Lager retired to his out-of-state mansion) but the financial bonanza for private schools continues here. And state leaders continue to benefit financially from them. Even the public school teacher retirement system is “fair game”.
Elected reformers wanted to change the almost $20 billion in pension investments (out of a total of $96 Billion) going into “private equity” firms to more transparent public investments. But, the State Assembly in a “midnight addition” last month, completely changed the System’s governance board. The elected seven to four reform member majority, will soon be seven reformers to eight appointees of the state government, and ultimately eight to only three elected representatives of those who paid into the system. The private equity firms are big political contributors too (The Fix Is In).
Rolling Back
The State Assembly has more “fish to fry” for the public schools. While the state provides a significant amount of public school budgets, most funding comes from local property and income taxes. Republican leaders want to change those as well. In the last state budget, provisions to cut back on the “inside millage”, the non-voted taxes schools could depend on, were enacted. In addition, the Assembly wants schools to stop “saving money” for future years, ordering money in excess of 30% of the district’s budget returned to the taxpayers.
Even Governor DeWine thought that was too much. He vetoed those provisions from the budget. But the Ohio Assembly is so gerrymandered, that it is technically “veto proof”. The Republicans have enough votes to override DeWine’s objections, and are seriously considering doing so. That’s just another “hit”against public education.
What’s Going Down
And all of this doesn’t include the innumerable legislative mandates placed on public education in the past two decades. State mandated testing superseded grades as the prime determinate for graduation, and now is a critical part of teacher evaluation as well. Do teachers “teach to the test”? They sure do, because their jobs depend on it. Is that “good education”? Of course not, but it is an artificial measure that schools with lower economic students are likely to fail. And since they don’t “pass the tests”; well that’s a great reason to stop spending money on them, according to the Assembly. Send it to the private schools.
And what’s really happening in the private schools? They can teach what they want, whatever religious regulations they believe, because, after all, they’re private. And since many of those schools align with the Christian conservatism of the legislative and executive leadership of the state; that works out fine for everyone.
Except, of course, for most taxpayers, public schools, public school students, and public school teachers. They’re left “holding the bag” as money and power flow to the influential few who control the purse. Public school teachers aren’t “paranoid”, they aren’t “making it up”. Ohio is a state that finances private education. Ohio spend taxpayers money, mine and yours, to further religion. It’s leaving public education, and educators, behind. And the folks in the State House want it that way.
