Source: Gov. Strickland's proposed budget

Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget for the next two years proposes an increase in per-pupil state aid and poverty-based assistance but leaves some Athens County school districts — including one in fiscal watch — with little or no additional funding.

Strickland emphasized the importance of education in his March 14 State of the State address and proposed 2008-09 budget, which must be approved by the General Assembly by June 30 before implementation, said Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s deputy communications director.

Dashed hopes

Federal Hocking School District would receive no additional funding in 2008 and a 0.1 percent, or $7,790, increase in 2009, according to the proposed budget.

Federal Hocking school officials initially were optimistic about receiving additional funds because of Strickland’s focus on helping districts that are struggling financially. But when the budget numbers were released, many were disappointed by the amount Federal Hocking would receive, superintendent James Patsey said.

Patsey said he hoped additional revenue from the budget would help the district, which recently was placed under fiscal watch despite efforts to reduce its projected $1.9 million-debt through staffing and program cuts.

Athens City School District would receive no additional funds in the next two years under the proposed budget.

“We didn’t count on anything, but we always hope,” superintendent Carl Martin said.

State Sen. Joy Padgett, R-Coshocton, said there were “certainly some winners” in Strickland’s proposed budget, but added she was unsure how the budget determined the school funding for districts such as Federal Hocking.

State Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, said he was concerned about the lack of funding for Athens and Federal Hocking school districts but acknowledged that many factors, including changes in enrollment, are considered in the school funding formula.

Ohio Department of Education documents show Federal Hocking schools’ enrollment declined by 52 students, or 3.8 percent, between 2005 and 2006, a factor that hurt the district’s funding based on per-pupil calculation, Patsey said.

Hesitant to celebrate

Alexander Local School District would receive an additional $1.1 million during the next two years, an increase of 5.8 percent from 2007 to 2008 and 6.1 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the proposed budget.

Alexander Superintendent Robert Bray said he expects the amount of funding for the district to change when the legislators discuss the budget.

“I hate to be pessimistic, but with a Democrat governor and Republicans in the House and Senate, there will be changes,” he said.

Padgett said she agreed with Strickland’s emphasis on parity and poverty-based assistance but allocations will not stay the same.

“There is no question things will change,” she said.

Trimble Local School District would receive about $680,000 in additional funds during the next two years, an increase of 5.3 percent from 2007 to 2008 and 4.7 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the proposed budget.

Superintendent Cindy Johnston said the additional money would help her district, one of the poorest in the Ohio, fund additional teaching positions and intervention for struggling students.

Nelsonville-York School District would receive about $790,000 in additional funds, an increase of 4.7 percent from 2007 to 2008 and 5 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the proposed budget.

Superintendent Ted Bayat said the budget shows the state is going in the right direction, but Ohio’s flawed school funding system must be fixed before more funds are distributed.

Fixing what’s broken

The first step to fix the unconstitutional school funding system is to determine the necessary components of the per-pupil aid formula, Bray said.

Bray said he and other local superintendents advocate the proposed constitutional amendment written by “Getting It Right For Ohio’s Future,” a coalition of 12 education organizations.

The amendment needs to force legislators who have ignored the DeRolph case, which declared school funding too dependent on local property taxes, to fix the school funding formula, Bray said. Until that occurs, Alexander schools will continue to reduce expenditures to stay out of the red through consolidation of positions and not filling retired teachers’ jobs, he said.

Funding problems in the past have even been outside local districts’ control. In 2007, Nelsonville-York School District lost $703 per student to phantom revenue, Bayat said. Phantom revenue is an odd consequence of the taxation system in which school districts lose money when property values increase.

Bayat said Nelsonville-York schools need all of the $5,403 basic per-pupil aid and additional money from poverty-based assistance and parity aid to function at the level required by the state, a situation that does not currently occur.

Amid current budget discussions, legislators must tackle their next challenge — determining an adequate per-pupil aid, Stewart said.

“We don’t have an accurate number for how to fund education,” he said.

— Emily Shuki contributed to this story

Gov. Strickland’s education-focused budget proposed:

• Increasing per-pupil state aid, called foundation funding, 3 percent each year over the next two years. The per-pupil aid, currently set at $5,403, would increase to $5,565 in 2008 and $5,732 in 2009.

• Increasing parity aid, funds used to correct socio-economic inequities between districts, by more than 7 percent during two years and focus on the poorest 60 percent instead of the poorest 80 percent. Parity aid is calculated from local property wealth values and the median income of the school district.

• Increasing poverty-based assistance, determined by the concentration of students on the •Ohio Works First list for needy families, by 22 percent during the next two years.

• Increasing education funding to 54 percent of the state budget by 2009. Primary and secondary education constituted 18.5 percent of the 2007 state budget and 18 percent of the 2006 state budget, according to the previous biennium budget. The budget would roughly triple the 2006 amount.

Source: Amanda Wurst, Gov. Strickland’s deputy communications director; Gov. Strickland’s March 14 State of the State