Guest post - School Funding Fun

I was working on another rant and it keeps taking on new lives, none of which is complete yet... that's way too much build up cuz it/they will make it on here and it/they will be disappointing.

Instead for today, I got an email from a regular commenter, another who, like me, left the cozy technician/government workforce to do something more worthwhile, or at least fun. While both of us could have, would have, and maybe even did write similar stuff before becoming public school teachers, it really hits home for us now... even as we have lost our credibility since we're obviously biased. We're thinking about drinking our consciences into the toilet and starting up our own for-profit magnet school that won't have to play by the rules and will thus solve all the problems public schools are strapped with and through which we could actually make enough money to put our own kids through college. Who cares that public schools are a requirement of statehood per the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Nobody, including our lawmakers, as John points out, pays attention to laws when it comes to public schools these days. Wow, excuse me... speaking of too much build up, here's John's rant in place of mine:

I just read an interesting piece in the Toledo Blade and it was not about Tom Noe. It seems the Cleveland Browns have donated $300,000 to the Cleveland Public Schools so that they might continue to have a high school football program (The NFL kicked in $200,000 as well!).
Now I'm all for rich people giving money to poor people - hell it's pretty much the basis for my economic belief system. But this is one fucked up way to fund a schools' athletic program. It seems that the Browns were not the first professional franchise to do this. Last year the Cleveland Indians put up money to help the school district fund its baseball and softball programs.

I'm not sure who went to whom with the idea. But whether the cash strapped school system went looking for a creative funding source or the good-hearted players and coaches of the Browns were looking to make a positive impact, this may actually set a bad precedent. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will get voters to the polls faster than canceling football season.
Oh, I know, it's mean. Boards of education all over Ohio have had to weigh the risk. Some have played the card and others blinked. At Lake local schools in rural Wood County, the board threatened to cancel the season and the voters turned out - the next day - at the school board meeting. They begged and pleaded and then made a deal. They signed a petition that said that they would support the levy in November if only the board would allow the season to go on. The board agreed and the season was saved. On November 2, the voters in the Lake local schools turned down the school levy by a staggering margin of 2 to 1. Can you imagine what the members of the board must have felt like on November 3rd. Damn.

This is, of course, but one ineffective way to get our students the funding they need - to threaten voters. It works in the short term just like the Browns saving Cleveland football will work in the short term. But will that organization be willing to part with that much money every year? For how long? And what about baseball? Will the Indians be willing to fund Cleveland baseball ad infinitum? And what about the students in poorly funded urban schools that don't have a major, or even minor league, sports franchise? Or for that matter, the poorly funded rural schools. I wonder if somewhere in Ohio there is a young volleyball player, soccer player, or golfer waiting for their corresponding major league franchise to send in a check.

The point of all of this is that we need to stop letting people off the hook for a problem that they refuse to solve. The they to whom I refer are the 99 members of the Ohio House of Representatives and the 33 members of the Ohio Senate. It is through their impotence, reluctance and moral cowardice that the school systems in Ohio suffer. The Supreme Court has spoken. But even more compelling than the verdict of the state's highest court - which frankly must not be terribly compelling to the legislature - is the continued failure of so many of Ohio's schools. Do they realize that these children deserve better but are afraid of the political fallout of suggesting a permanent income tax increase that is dedicated to education funding?
Or do they really not give a damn at all because they don't have to? Because, after all, they don't. The voters who were frustrated by the continued begging from the Lake school board voted to send the same two representatives back to Columbus. Why worry about the new third rail of State politics when you don't have to?
That's all I have to say about that - for now.

Thanks for the week off John!
Luth