paying for public education

[joycenalex]

in ohio, local property taxes pay for majority the local school district funding. state monies are a portion of the district funds.well to do district=lots of money, poor district=less money, the amount the state kicks in is the same in well to do areas of ohio as in appalachian ohio. the state constution requires a through education. a parent from a poor area of ohio sued the state saying the local property tax supported schools were unconstutional due to the fact that the state constutional requirements of a through education was not being met. the state supreme court found in favor of the plaintiff and ordered the state legislature to change the funding system. the original orders to change were handed down nearly 10 years ago. the state and plaintiff have gone back on appeals 3 times over the last 10 years, each time the supreme court has upheld the unconstutionality of the funding system, and told the legislature to find another way to fund primary education. the state legislature (minimally) increased the amount the state paid for student education. the problem of very inadaquate educational systems in ohio remains. there are school districts that lack basic plumbing/heating systems(let alone air conditioning)/buildings out of current fire code, as well as in poor repair. there are districts that lack computer systems, let alone the wiring for such. raising property taxes in poor areas isn't going to bring in any where near enough money to raise the education levels in these areas.
without the social infrastructure of a good educational system, companies won't come and open businesses there, people do/will leave in search of better opportunities, and the problems associated with poverty will only increase.
how do other states fund their education systems? dedicated personal income taxes? dedicated sales taxes? property taxes as ohio does? i'm interested in seeing if there are other ways to make an effective eduational system work.

[Cincy'sMom]

Also lving in Ohio I can't offer any insight as to how other states do it, but I do have a few thoughts about what our state is doing...

First, many districts in our area have had levies recently to rebuild all the school in the distrcit. in most cases, some school, are bad, some are not. But the way the goverment has worded things, it is an all or nothing deal. We , as propert ytax payers pick up some of the bill, and everyone cheers, cause they state is "kicking in" the rest of the money. Guess where that money comes from? Oh yeah, taxes!!! So everyone jumps on the band wagon saying that we have to support our school and lokk how the state is helping us!! Wrong, we are helping ourselves!!

Toledo Public schools are bad! There are a few exceptions and a few extreme, but overall, tests scores stink! Howdo we fix it? Cut teachers and build new buidlings! Huh? How does this work?

At two of our local elementary school, not one sigle 6th grader passed the math profecicny test. Two schools, Not one student!! Reading? Well in those two school 13% passed. Now, these are the worst schools, but shouldn't every school be held to a higher standard? These two school are trying something new next year. One will be all male, the other all female and all students will wear uniforms. And mothers go on TV waling, "Why does my Baby, have to go a WHOLE MILE away to school ,when there is one just down the street" Well, take an interest in your "baby's" education, prove they are learning something, and maybe such drastic steps wouldn't have to be taken!

Sorry, just my vent for the day

[Cataholic]

Living in Ohio with you two, this is our system. Cincinnati public schools stink, too. Cincy'smom..funny...I don't get how new schools, cut teacher's etc., does anything for the problems we are facing, either....

I think we should have year round school, uniforms for everyone, and, really, lose the extra curriculur...if you want your kids to play sports, let them join a rec league...and let the kids in school learn what they should be learning.

[Airedalekisses]

Indiana here-our lottery sytem was supposed to support public schools-the operative word being supposed. Teachers have been laid off all sorts of programs cut(educational-not sports-heaven forbid they cut sports!) ok maybe sports have a place and blah blah-but learn to read and write before you throw a ball around.

[mugsy]

I just saw this thread, so, the Hoosier teacher will chime in. In FWCS (the district where I teach) the budget woes cost over 100 teachers their jobs. Now, understand, they didn't lay off ANY administrators, just teachers. We have some excellent teachers who bust their butts in the classroom everyday, but, have kids who refuse to learn. It doesn't have anything to do with what or how the teachers teach, the kids are just lazy and won't do their work and the parents want to blame us, when they don't do anything about making sure their kids do their homework. Now, that being said, that state budget cost our school 6 teachers (when we have a population of 918 kids in a building meant to hold no more than 800), so our class sizes will only increase. Until the government figures out that they need to spend more money on education, the problem will only get worse. However, until the parents decide to make education #1 in their house, the problem won't get any better either.