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.

Hat in hand

Gov. Ted Strickland is in Philadelphia today along with nearly all of the nation’s other governors. They are begging the president-elect for federal money.

It appears that it’s a given that the state is going to have to mandate a 10 percent across-the-board spending cut, which would reduce the state’s projected two-year deficit from about $7.3 billion to $4.7 billion. Strickland must be hoping that the seemingly bottomless federal coffers can make up the rest; help with Medicaid and unemployment benefits seems to be the state’s most pressing need.

Then again, the deficit is only projected, so it isn’t written in stone. I mean, the state thought it would generate $73 million from a keno gambling expansion to go toward plugging the deficit. That hasn’t worked out. Projections are funny things.

Ruh-roh

The state of Ohio faces an eye-popping $7.3 billion deficit in the next two-year budget, 2010-2011.

I hate to be a broken record on this, but tell me how the state is going to find more money for public education as it faces this nightmare?

Strickland’s touch

Chronicle-Telegram Editor Andy Young and I had a visit from one of the more conservative members of the Ohio Senate this morning — state Sen. Tim Grendell, a Geauga County Republican.

Grendell came by to talk about Ohio’s state Issue 3, a little-known constitutional amendment that, if approved, would guarantee a private property owner’s right of “reasonable use” of water located on or underneath his property. The amendment simply would enshrine existing rights into the Ohio Constitution.

What interested me more than the water issue was what Grendell, who credibly calls himself a “straight shooter,” told us about Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat.

Unlike his Republican predecessor, Gov. Bob Taft, Strickland is accessible, Grendell said. Strickland moved his office from the Riffe Center, located across the street from the Statehouse in downtown Columbus, back to the Statehouse, where governors historically set up shop. There Strickland holds court with legislators, even ones he disagrees with, such as Grendell, Grendell said. In the Taft era, Grendell said, he would have to wait weeks to get any face time with the governor. Now, Grendell said, he can simply find Strickland on his daily walk and chat with him. Same thing goes with Strickland’s subordinates, Grendell said.

Little stories such as these show why, by the end of his eight years in office, Taft was so reviled by left and right alike. The man simply had no human touch.

Strickland does, and even though Grendell said that all bets are off when it comes to election time, I’m beginning to question whether Republicans actually will be all that interested in knocking off Strickland in 2010.