Beacon Journal editorial: Absent at the Core

Akron Beacon Journal

December 22, 2006

State lawmakers have raised high school graduation standards. They have left schools to find the resources to meet the goals

In the long run, nothing is more important to the future of Ohio than a better-educated population. Responding to the need, the state legislature approved major education bills in the recently concluded lame-duck session, a feverish round that allowed no opportunity for broad debate. Missed was the chance to move forward in a more productive way.

Give the Republican-dominated majorities some credit. Ohio benefits from raising high school graduation standards. Even more than doubling the schools where students will be eligible for vouchers reflects a certain attention to the state's highest priority. Lawmakers can can return home and say they did something to advance the quality of education.

The problem is, the most critical and demanding task, devising a fair and steady, even ``thorough and efficient,'' stream of funding for public schools, was left until another day -- and another administration, that of Gov. Ted Strickland. So there was motion. It wasn't all going in the right direction.

The Ohio Core plan, the centerpiece of Gov. Bob Taft's State of the State speech last January, was widely praised for its goal of elevating graduation standards, particularly with more rigorous math and science requirements. But the legislature gave a mere nod to the difficulties most districts will have implementing the plan, pushing the date back from 2012 to the class of 2014 and adding just $16 million for teacher recruitment and retention.

For starters, that's not enough money. Sylvester Small, the Akron superintendent, correctly observed that local districts ``will be left holding the bag.'' Lawmakers invited further questions by exempting dropout recovery schools from the Ohio Core. Such charter schools were supposed to elevate traditional public schools. Now these charter schools cite their need to escape higher standards?

The funding system, with its heavy reliance on local property taxes, the yield constantly adjusted downward so that revenue does not rise with inflation, makes meeting new standards a burden local school leaders will shoulder first. State lawmakers get to crow about demanding improved performance.

By classifying more schools as eligible for vouchers (from 99 to 236), the legislature hopes to shore up a failing experiment that drains as much as $5,000 per student from public schools. The number of voucher slots, at 14,000, would stay the same. Less than 4,000 are currently filled. Republicans usually bow to the market. In this situation, the market has spoken: Parents overwhelmingly want to send their children to neighborhood public schools.