Column: Good luck on school-funding change

My Dec. 11 print edition column. Note: I’ll be out of town until the middle of next week, so I might not be posting.

State Rep. Joe Koziura says “it’s not about money anymore” when it comes to improving Ohio’s public schools. He better be right, because right now there just isn’t more money to be had for schools or, frankly, anything else the state might want to fund. That means that those looking for a fundamental change to alter a school-funding system the Ohio Supreme Court has said is over-reliant on local property taxes should ready themselves for disappointment.

Koziura, an affable and proud Lorain Democrat, is a consistent populist. He decries the pernicious influence of lobbyists in Columbus — and the legislative term limits that aid and abet their work — and public spending he cannot defend. For instance, his party’s soon-to-be-former leader in the Ohio House, Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus, will make $320,000 after Ohio State University created a position for her. “Outrageous,” Koziura said.

Yet when it comes to the thorny issue of public school funding, Koziura takes a different view than many other liberals across the state. Look at a child’s family, he said. If the parents are concerned about their kid, then that child probably has a better chance of succeeding; if not, the student is going to have a harder time. Koziura would like to see a system less reliant on property taxes, but he doesn’t see money as a magic bullet.

He’s right, at least to a point. If money was the sole answer, the Lorain school district, which spends among the most money per pupil in the county, would be among the county’s best school districts. Instead, it’s the worst, based on state ratings. My point isn’t to dump on Lorain; it’s merely that the town’s intractable problems wear off on the school district.

Don’t, however, tell districts across this county that it’s not about money. Rich and poor districts alike face looming deficits or painful cuts. The property tax-poor Lorain district recently failed to pass a levy, so it must reckon with a $2.7 million deficit next year. On the other end of the spectrum, voters in the affluent Avon school district recently renewed two levies, but the district still faces a deficit early next decade. Everybody’s present, or future, is gloomy.

And I mean everybody. Median household income adjusted for inflation is down both in rich and poor parts of the county, according to recently reported figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. From 1999 to 2007, Avon Lake’s median household income fell from $82,144 to $78,703; in the same time period, that figure fell in Elyria from $47,481 to $41,318. Whether you eat steak or Spam, chances are you’re buying less of it then you were a decade ago.

The state’s hurting too. Ohio faces a projected $7 billion shortfall in its next two-year budget; considering that the last two-year budget was roughly $50 billion, the state is going to have to do some serious shedding, no matter what help comes from Washington’s seemingly bottomless coffers.

All of this seems to make school funding reform a costly afterthought.

The state Board of Education recommends that the state allocate an additional $1 billion to schools, which would go toward extra help for poor and special needs students, among other extras. John Bender, Lorain County’s state Board of Education representative, likes the proposal, but says it’s “pie in the sky” because of the state’s budget troubles.

Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, said he will offer a school-funding suggestion next year. He can offer the most grandiose plan in the world, but it won’t mean anything if the Republican-dominated Ohio Senate doesn’t like it.

Even if Strickland or the school lobby tries to bypass the Legislature to take a proposal to the voters, it’s hard to see stretched voters supporting any big-money proposal.

Contrary to popular belief, local school districts have been learning to go without for awhile now. Their lessons continue.