The Impact of the State Budget on Public Education

"I made the extremely difficult decision to cut many worthy programs in order to protect direct aid to our local schools..." Governor Ted Strickland.

Indeed, this is the case. Those of us involved in education (parents, kids, educators, staff) can be thankful that in these difficult economic times, we have been spared the worst ramifications.
Yesterday we gathered in Columbus and heard from Richard Levin, tax commissioner of Ohio, as well as Paolo DeMaria, the vice-chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, Richard Lewis, executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association, and several others, detailing the impact of the new state budget on our schools, as well as the myriad other alterations to the Ohio education system which we will encounter in the coming years. While there isn't time or space to go into extensive detail here, I can re-direct you to a complete link (http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=128_HB_1) and provide some bulleted highlights:

* State budgets MUST be balanced
* Our state budget faced a 3.2 billion deficit (even AFTER stimulus dollars)
* In order to balance, 2.4 billion in spending cuts were made; around 1 billion in income from Video Lottery Machines is hoped for (realistically, based on figures)
* What about the stimulus dollars? What will we do after this one-time money is gone?
- Several ways to think about this: this "one-time" money is actually replacing money which we normally do have, and likely will have again, in tax income once the recession is over (and there are signs that it is ending); also, in the state of Ohio, we have been dealing with a five-year tax cut plan, and the last cut is now taking place, so income from taxes will stabilize
* School funding has been reformed. Income to districts will be based on three components: college attainment (bachelor's degree) of the adults (over 25) in the district; district wealth per pupil; district poverty concentration. This is called the "Ohio Evidence Based Model," or OEBM
* The Ohio Graduation Test will disappear, and be replaced by a test such as the ACT, a senior project, and course-end exams.
* ESCs (like the Lucas County ESC) will receive the same funding for the next two years. A council has been formed to re-examine the role of ESCs and how to evaluate the services provided.
* The Ohio Department of Education has been charged to develop curricular changes which will include financial literacy, increased foreign language education, increased fine arts education, education in entrepreneurship and enhanced computer literacy (beginning with grade K).
* All day kindergarten everywhere across the state, with funding from the state.
* Charter schools will have increased oversight by the ODE, but the funding mechanism remains the same. This was not the Governor's intention, but the Senate made the change.
There are numerous other changes, but these are some highlights. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for the opportunity to serve!