Representative Jon Peterson, Chairman
April 28, 2005

Chairman Peterson and members of the committee; my name is Fred Pausch, and I am the Director of Legislative Services for the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA). The Ohio School Boards Association is in its 50th year of service to public education serving Ohio's public school boards.

I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today and talk about charter schools and vouchers.  Next Tuesday, May 3, 2005 there will be 184 school districts that have 197 tax issues on the primary ballot.  This large number of levies is clear proof that the funding system is not working and the job of supporting schools is increasingly on property taxpayers.  Where is the relief in sight for the local taxpayer. One should really ask themselves is now really the time to be expanding vouchers and scholarships in Ohio.  We are opposed to the new expansion of the Cleveland Voucher program to include the 11th and 12th grade students.  And OSBA also opposes the creation of the Education Choice Scholarship Program that is in amended Substitute HB 66.  How can voucher students being counted in the ADM of the resident school district to qualify for state aid and be deducted from the state aid of the resident district help the public school system?  If public school students are struggling, the proper role of the state is to help them directly, not just shuffle them around to different schools.  The best use of state funding is for intervention and tutoring for students not doing well rather than scholarships to private schools.  There may be some that believe that parental choice alone is sufficient to justify the new Scholarship program.  The state should not be using public funds to pay for an individual's private preferences unless there is clear evidence that private results are improved.  There is no evidence that exists for the new proposed program.  When are we going to recognize that some students may be failing due to lack of effort, poor family support or poverty; not just because of their school.  The state should help those students, and help the public schools help those students, not just give them a possibly valueless scholarship and forget them.

We believe:

There continues to be a discrepancy in the funding methodology for community schools.  The base formula amount is made up of a state and local share.  Thus $5,169 per pupil represents part state and part local contribution.  No district is totally funded by the state funds or by local funds.  The community school funding mechanism subtracts the total $5,169 per pupil, even though a school may only receive $2,000 per pupil from the state. 

Is there a mechanism in Ohio to prevent what happened in California?  The California Charter Academy’s slide into insolvency left 6,000 students, teachers and local school boards to clean up the mess.  Steven Cox, a California businessman used $100 million in state financing to build an empire of 60 charter schools that were publicly financed but privately run.  Ask the parents of these kids in California if the system worked for them?

The authority to sponsor community schools must be limited to regularly elected or appointed public school boards of education.  That is the only way to be certain that community schools, the education responsibility they seek to undertake and the millions of public dollars they spend are accountable to officials who are directly answerable to the voters.  Sponsorship by public school boards of education would also enhance cooperation and communication at the community level.

Great care must be taken to prevent misuse, mismanagement and waste of public funds.  Community schools are identified as “public schools” and there can be no lowering of accountability in these schools.  Likewise, educational standards must be maintained.  Community schools can be different but they can’t be less than the standards set for Ohio’s entire education system.

The Association believes that no public funds should be devoted to expanding programs in nonpublic schools. Vouchers, scholarships, tuition tax credits and similar programs will be opposed at the state and federal levels.

The Association supports the concept of charter/community schools as an alternative in providing educational services to students.  The sponsorship of charter/community schools should only be through the local board of education.  Creation of a charter/community school should not adversely impact a local school district.  Base funding for each charter/community school should be provided by the state for all Ohio school districts.  Funding provided to charter/community schools for special education, vocational education, disadvantaged pupil impact aid and transportation should be totally state funded. Charter/Community schools students should be required to meet the state board minimum standards to receive a high school diploma.  The Association supports the adoption of statutory laws to require greater fiscal and administrative oversight of charter/community schools.  The Association supports full state funding for the purchase of additional buses required to provide transportation for charter/community school students.  Charter/community schools must be required to coordinate their transportation schedules with the district providing transportation services.

Advocacy OSBA


©Ohio School Boards Association, 2005