Fifteen years and counting

Fifteen years and counting

In March, right after this year’s primary election, we will mark the 15th anniversary of one of our biggest political failures in Ohio history. Neither Democrats nor Republicans in the Statehouse or governor’s mansion have solved this problem. It’s called DeRolph v. The State of Ohio. Yes, it’s that pesky little case that said the funding of education in Ohio is unconstitutional.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional so many times they finally refused to hear it again and sent it back to the Legislature to resolve. Yet, 15 years later — two years longer than it takes to educate a generation of children — it’s still not solved.

First, some low wealth districts were supplemented with extra dollars to appease them and that soon dried up. Next, the School Facility Commission was created to rebuild failing infrastructure. For some districts, it provided new buildings but did nothing to enhance the education of students. This program will also fall by the wayside for lack of funds, thereby leaving some districts with new schools and no operating money and others with operating monies and deteriorating buildings. Most individuals are right when they refer to these as bandages and not solutions. The most recent so-called solution seems to be the most counterproductive fix yet. Instead of fixing the funding problems in public education, Columbus has now created a second public school system called “charter schools.”

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that, for the most part, underperform even the worst of public schools. For the one or two that do education justice, it was not worth the approximately $1 billion dollars we spent on them the last school year under Strickland, nor will they be any better doubling the expenditure under Gov. Kasich.

Ohioans receive little or no accountability for the funds they provide, only inferior results versus the schools they replaced. Common sense dictates fixing a smaller problem that exists in public schools versus making productive public schools into nonproductive alternatives. Many believe a student’s environment and home life is the root of our education problems, and that does not change, regardless of what school they attend. We should be cutting our losses by eliminating charter schools and moving ahead.

Finally, the people of Ohio deserve a funding system that does not depend on a ZIP code or one that does not put more and more financial burden on the backs of local taxpayers. We also don’t need increased taxes. What we need is a common sense plan to get more value from what we do pay so as to provide educational opportunity to all students in Ohio. Let’s not wait another 15 years to accomplish something so long overdue.

Al Haberstroh, Southington