Cleveland school deal an investment for tomorrow
other features, the bill (House Bill 525) would free high-performing Cleveland schools from some bureaucratic burdens as an incentive to under-performing schools. Also targeted are under-performing charter schools: A Cleveland Transformation Alliance would give the state Education Department non-binding advice on the fitness of potential Cleveland charter school sponsors.
A Statehouse Republican, politically speaking, gains no necessary advantage from being helpful to Cleveland. To downstate Republicans, the term “Cleveland Republican” is an oxymoron. In 2010, while Ohioans unseated Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, Strickland bested Republican Kasich by 103,000 votes in Cuyahoga County (albeit, an anemic Cuyahoga showing for a Democrat).
And while Batchelder, a conservative’s conservative, has eclectic political connections with some of Greater Cleveland’s black leaders, and has Cleveland ancestors, Medina is a Currier and Ives print compared to Cleveland’s urban grit.
One aim of the deal, yes, is to win from Cleveland voters this November a new Cleveland school levy. True also, some of the kooks in Batchelder’s House Republican caucus may try to derail the school agreement. That would be ironic, given that Ohio’s treasury funds almost 53 percent of Cleveland’s perpupil revenue — a share sure to rise unless the legislature lets Cleveland at least try the Jackson plan.
According to state Education Department data, in the fiscal year that ended last June 30, Cleveland schools spent $15,072 per pupil. Similar Ohio districts, also according to the department, spent 4.8 percent less ($14,353).
Critics like, instead, to compare Cleveland’s $15,072 per-pupil outlay to the statewide average for all Ohio districts, which is 29 percent less ($10,697).
But here’s the real question: If Cleveland’s $15,072 per pupil outlay is “too much,” how about — again, from apples-toapples Education Department stats — Beachwood’s $19,651 per pupil? The $14,953 Independence spent? The $15,171 Upper Arlington spent? The $12,017 Kettering spent — or the $15,207 spent by schools in Indian Hill, a nest of Cincinnati zillionaires? Could it be that some people are arguing for a double standard?
Soreheads grouse that no amount of money can make up for the defects of indifferent parents. It is certainly the case that Ohio has more of a “parenting” problem than a “funding” problem. But just because some parents are feckless doesn’t mean everyone else can afford to be. There’s no economic future for Ohio in consigning to oblivion — out of sight, out of mind — generations of young black Ohioans. Taxpayers invest today in future taxpayers, or pay tomorrow, to house non-taxpaying prisoners or nurse impoverished Medicaid clients.
The chasm between rich and poor in Cleveland is as stark as it was in Charles Dickens’ London. What changed that were some British politicians, Tory and Labour alike, who decided, like some Ohioans 10 days ago, that rather than stoke a volcano, they’d try to cool it — by taking some responsibility for their society.