school funding news

Remember when Ohio's school funding system of levying property taxes was declared unconstitutional because Ohio's constitution made the unreasonable demand of "quality" schools in all districts? (And presumably the monies for such would fly out of monkeys' butts?) The case was filed in 1991 and finally dismissed in 2002 after the state still hadn't developed a better solution. Meanwhile, local geniuses and letter-to-the-editor authors were voting down school levies because "We don't want to teach our children that it's OK to break the law."

Well, now someone is finally doing something about it. The article doesn't give details on what the proposal offers, but I'm just glad to see some activity in this arena so it can be discussed again. I was never comfortable with the way the courts closed the case in 2002 yet left it unresolved.

In other school funding news, Elyria has been trying to build a new high school since at least 1990 that I recall. Each time, in my humble opinion, a large part of the proposal's failure rests with an overly zealous school board and superintendent who only feign community input and then go ahead and do whatever they wanted in the first place. They seem to learn something with each levy failure, but even with the appearance of full disclosure, the public is still not being given the straightforward details.

Take this article from today's Chronicle-Telegram, regarding a phone survey the school board has been conducting. As it happens, my dad was one of the regular voters called for his opinions. The Chronicle reported regarding the wording of one of the questions:

However, the question also asks voters if they'd support a "one-half mill" additional levy to help pay for the perpetual costs of maintenance for the high school. And there lies the problem, Rigda said.

The question intended to say that voters could face a 0.5-mill levy for maintenance which, in addition to the 3-mill levy, would total a 3.5-mill levy. That, Rigda said, would be the worst-case scenario -- the most the district would seek.

As far as I'm aware, this survey is the first time we've even heard about a 0.5-mill maintenance levy. But what's worse, and what the article neglects to mention, is that this proposed maintenance tax would be a continuing levy. As in, it never expires. EVER.

Whether or not I agree with the idea of a tax levy for school building maintenance in perpetuity, surely the school board would realize such a proposal would spell disaster come November.

Maybe they do, and that's why it's been kept quiet. But that's the cynic in me talking. There's no question there needs to be a set fund for building maintenance (rather than simply pulling it out of the general funds), especially as various school administrators have taken a "planned obsolescence" view of the high school dating back to 1990.

Planned obsolescence meaning allowing certain aspects of the building to deteriorate either under the guise of "we'll be getting a new school soon so why fix it" and/or "if the public sees how horrible it is, they'll give us a new one."

But I think that backfires. Instead of rallying community support, a decrepit school lowers our opinion of the school system. The taxpayers instead feel as though their money is being wasted, so until you get that new school, they'll be voting down levies for regular maintenance, which only accelerates the urgency for a new school while breeding more apathy along the way. I don't necessarily agree that our money is being wasted, but it's a very real aspect of how Johns Q. Public reason and vote... And a very real aspect of how they pack up and move to Avon, North Ridgeville, Amherst, et al., taking their tax dollars with them. The community wants schools it can be proud of, and watching the high school fall apart is not the way to go about it.

That would be like telling a fat person they should plump up so they'll have a mental breakdown and finally lose that weight. Buildings are buildings, but, in the words of Pete from Muppets Take Manhattan, "Peoples is peoples."