Educating In a Global Economy Can’t Be Done Cheaply (OH)
April 23, 2010
IT’S school levy season again. Actually, school issues on local ballots are more perennial than seasonal, appearing regularly on Election Day more years than not.
In upcoming elections, many school districts throughout Ohio and the country will again ask taxpayers to pay more to prop up school budgets. Officials in my rural district hope the fourth time is a charm in asking voters for money, but it’s a crapshoot at best.
Especially now. People are angry, in the mood to kick the cat over job losses or pay cuts that have squeezed the life out of household budgets. They’ve never gotten a break or a bailout on anything, from outrageous insurance premiums to out-of-pocket expenses that keep going up.
The economy has not turned around for most, especially in the Midwest, and the strain of an uncertain future has worn us down. The prevailing climate of worry and resentment has made some people ripe for heated rhetoric that seems to channel their rage.
The Tea Party has given them an outlet to fume about whatever they’re against. The release of indiscriminate fury, while cathartic, threatens to cancel whatever support there may be for a tax request on the ballot.
It’s an outcome schools fear nationwide. The blowback from disgruntled voters is already apparent in communities where recurring school levies have become as certain as death and taxes.
Sometimes a school plea is packaged differently and marketed with new and improved strategies for winning. But a tax increase by any other name is still a tax increase, and who needs it? Schools are always asking for money and it’s never enough.
You can go to any school district in the country and hear the same arguments against a levy. Schools should manage their money better. Teachers make too much. It’s not as bad as they say it is.
The superintendent is a bum and the school board doesn’t have a clue. Reduced bus service, pay-to-participate, and slashed programs are just the district’s way of punishing us for not passing the last levy.
Now they want to try again? Not a chance. That pretty much covers the general disposition of fed-up voters facing school levies. People have reached the limit of their largesse and there ain’t no more.
But if not us, who? Federal stimulus funding to shore up school budgets is mostly used up. With depleted revenues, states hit hard by the recession can barely keep basic government services running.
<p class="loose"> ;Compounding matters in Ohio are lawmakers who for years have been grossly negligent in crafting a constitutional school funding formula. They prefer instead to funnel what is feasible in a particular budget year. Public schools can't depend on the state for adequate funding.
But they still have to pay their bills and put out a payroll. If they eliminate jobs — teachers, administrators, educational aides, crossing guards, and others — to save money and the budget still isn’t balanced, what then?
When cutting operating expenses to the bone, closing schools, enlarging class sizes, and postponing capital improvement projects aren’t enough to affect the financial stability of a district, what then? Tough luck, kids? Let someone else pay for your education?
There is no one else. Get used to it. I don’t like it any more than you do, but that’s the way it is.
A school district’s revenue is made up of two main sources, state and local funding.
When both state and local officials pass on their responsibilities, schools suffer. Districts that face large reductions in school aid must drastically reduce expenditures, which are mainly wages, benefits, and whatever needs to be purchased in services and material.
They have no choice. The depressing scenario that follows is familiar by now — teacher layoffs and canceled classes, teams, clubs, field trips, and full-day kindergarten. Fewer textbooks and supplies will be bought and some building repairs will have to wait.
But it’s just education. It’s just the foundation for the next generation of Americans to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy. It’s just the most important obligation a community can fulfill.
It can’t be done on the cheap. And we can’t kick this can down the road. We have to do what’s right for our kids, even if it means holding our noses and supporting perennial levies on the ballot.
We have to do it, so students get what they desperately need today to prepare for tomorrow.