Encouraging funding news, work still ahead

Give credit where it’s due: Ohio lawmakers have talked for years about directing more school funding toward poorer districts, and at least one study shows that they have done so. That is encouraging, but it shouldn’t be taken for proof that Ohio’s school-funding system is adequate and logical.

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank Education Trust looked at school-funding systems in all states with an eye toward equity — distributing resources fairly according to need — and found that Ohio is among the best at giving extra help to schools with lots of poor and minority students . ...

That’s what works about the state’s complex funding formula.

It takes into account the challenges faced by some districts — high poverty, many minorities, special-needs students and those who don’t speak English well, among others — and adjusts the perpupil amount accordingly.

Beyond that it breaks down, because the General Assembly hasn’t come up with a way to generate the money its own formula says is necessary. Hence the “cap”: an arbitrary limit on how much a district’s total state funding can grow from year to year . ...

Creating a formula to steer extra funding toward the neediest schools is laudable, but if the state can’t actually allocate what the formula calls for, something is missing . ...

Read the full editorial from the Columbus Dispatch at bit. ly/2I4RpaH