school reform

The Akron Beacon Journal praised the superintendent sharing going on between the Orrville and Rittman school districts in an editorial recently.

The editorial noted that Ohio has many school districts that are generally small in size:

Ohio, with the sixth highest number of school districts in the nation, ranks relatively low in the average number of pupils per district. At around 3,000, the number puts Ohio 29th. Enrollment in some districts is smaller than an Akron high school.

Rittman and Orrville schools, faced with difficult finances, have taken a realistic step toward administrative savings. They should continue to work together, and other districts across the state would do well to take note. In the end, as Jon Ritchie noted, the important thing isn't having your own superintendent. It's about providing children the educational opportunities they need to compete.

How many other school districts will follow Rittman-Orrville's example in 2008?

During Voices & Choices the public made a clear call for educational excellence in Northeast Ohio. One of the major stumbling blocks toward improving our region's K-12 education has been developing a more effective (and legal) way to fund public schools in Ohio.

The present system of relying on property taxes has been ruled unconstitutional, but the state Legislature hasn't responded with an alternative. Frustration is mounting over the lack of action on this front and individuals are looking for alternatives. One proposal being floated is to have voters decide whether a sales tax could be used to fund education.

This is from an editorial in the Canton Repository:

Christopher Goff, a new member of the Jackson Local Board of Education, wants the Legislature to allow voters to decide whether a countywide sales tax should help to fund school operating expenses. Now, asking the Legislature to tackle anything with even a whiff of controversy attached during an election year is a dubious proposition. But Goff does have this in his corner: The Legislature has never hesitated to kick back to voters hard decisions about school funding. ... The state Legislature has shirked its duty to devise a new, constitutional funding formula for more than a decade. But local voters will always provide a share of funding directly to their own schools. They have few options now; they should have more. Good luck to Goff in attracting local as well as state interest in this idea.

The sales tax is just one of several ideas floating on how to improve our region's education system. Here's a wish that a few of these ideas gain some traction in 2008.

Supporters of Advance Northeast Ohio believe very strongly that regionalism is all about sharing. When Northeast Ohio shares its assets and collaborates we are all in a better position to benefit from the region's economic growth.

Today the Plain Dealer in Cleveland highlighted one of the newest examples of sharing in the region in this article about the communities of Rittman and Orrville sharing a superintendent. While it is too soon to say how this sharing will work, superintendent Jon Ritchie makes a very important point in the article:

"This is not a consolidation," said Ritchie, himself a product of the Rittman schools. "We'll have two budgets, two boards of education, two distinct school districts. We're just trying to streamline services so we can save some money and give additional services to the kids."

Sharing can make more resources available to the region's school children. Where could your school district "streamline services" by sharing with other districts?

Registered users can learn some more about the Orrville-Rittman superintendent sharing effort by clicking on the PowerPoint link below. You can register on our home page if you haven't yet done so.

Following the lead of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber, the leadership of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce has appointed a task force to attempt to develop community-based solutions to school funding. The group expects to meet monthly for at least six to eight months, and anticipates releasing next year a report to the community that includes recommendations for action.

You can read more about the effort in the Canton Repository here.

Here is a key quote:

“We are not going to keep businesses here, attract new businesses, unless we have an educated workforce,” said Jim Pennetti, director of business retention and expansion for the chamber. “How our public schools in Ohio are funded has a huge impact on K-12 education in Stark County, and we see it as a very important economic development issue.”

Ten years after the Supreme Court ruled the state's way of funding public education was illegal, our region is tired of waiting for answers from Columbus. We need to unite as a region to develop our own solutions. The partners in Advance Northeast Ohio look forward to working with the Canton chamber and others to find such solutions.

Stephen Hoffman, one of the editorial writers at the Akron Beacon Journal, takes a deeper look at Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber's push to consolidate schools administrations and use the savings to pay for the education of the valley's residents. It's a big idea that's getting more attention every day, as it should.

I think Stephen highlighted some key points here:

Michelle Miller-Adams, a political scientist with the Upjohn Institute of Employment Research, recently told the Kalamazoo Gazette this simple truth: ''You can't get people to move here if they can't get jobs.'' (Wonder whether Rebecca Ryan, the Wisconsin consultant who came to advise Akron to be more hip, is listening?)

Still, it is increasingly clear that you can't get high-growth, high-tech, information-intensive businesses to locate in your city unless you've got a highly educated work force. That's not an easy sell in either Kalamazoo or Youngstown, cities that prospered for decades on factory jobs.

Access to higher education is a necessary, but probably not sufficient, precursor to economic growth. It must be married to a larger, regional strategy.

That regional strategy is Advance Northeast Ohio and the Regional Chamber is an active and valued partner in our region's effort to implement important regional initiatives that will result in more growing businesses, a more educated, entrepreneurial and innovative workforce, more opportunities for the disadvantaged and more effective and efficient government.

Education may well prove to be the most important driver of the economy in the 21st century, but Stephen is right, education reform efforts must be part of a larger strategy.

Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber President Tom Humphries generated a buzz in the room on Thursday when he told a group of about 150 government and business development officials that the state of Ohio could save more than $1 billion a year by consolidating K-12 school administration on a county level throughout the state.

The Regional Chamber is pushing a smaller scale effort in three counties in Mahoning Valley and, if successful, would use the savings (estimated at $20 million a year) to pay for valley residents to go on to college or to get a technical degree. Read more about the chamber's effort here.

Humphries spoke on a panel during a program sponsored by the Fund for Our Economic Future that explored how  the Dashboard of Economic Indicators can guide our region's economic development efforts.

Humphries said that the time is right for making fundamental change to the way we do business in Northeast Ohio.

Chris Warren, chief of regional development for the City of Cleveland, and Twinsburg Mayor Katherine Procop agreed that revenue sharing throughout the region could boost the overall economic health of individual communities and Northeast Ohio. The region's elected officials, led by the Northeast Ohio Mayors and City  Managers Association, is taking a serious look at implementing regional revenue sharing. You can learn more about their efforts at RevenueStudy.org.