Hey, Akron Public Schools! Vouchers are Forcing you to cut 285 Jobs!

The obvious, yet unstated answer to Akron's budget shortfall: Eliminate EdChoice, fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan. Unify the community around advocacy. Stop dividing them over cuts and levies.

Akron Public Schools is staring down the barrel at a $24 million budget deficit. So their response is to cut 285 jobs, close buildings and do a bunch of other things that will not help and will most likely hurt their students’ success, including seeking a substantial tax levy.

But the district is missing an obvious issue — the Ohio General Assembly has decided to explode public subsidies for mostly wealthy adults’ private school tuitions at the expense of Akron Public School students!

How so?

Simple. Look at the Akron Public Schools’ state funding report.

Ohio is phasing in its new Fair School Funding Plan at 50% this year. Which leaves Akron $22 million short of the state aid the formula says it needs (Calculated State Funding column). So instead of Akron receiving $196.4 million in state aid this year, the state’s giving kids in Akron $174.5 million.

So Akron’s shortfall should be more like $2 million, not $24 million. But only if the state fully funds its new formula.

So, Steve, you say, how are vouchers involved here?

That too, dear reader, is simple.

If one looks at all the money going to kids in all public school districts, you’ll see that overall, Ohio is a little more than $740 million short on fully funding what the formula actually states that students need.

This school year, thanks to the explosion in EdChoice Expansion vouchers, if you multiply all the EdChoice voucher recipients by the average per pupil funding from last year (which is more likely smaller than this year’s will be. We won’t know this year’s amount until the state closes the books on this fiscal year June 30), you’ll never guess how much money is being spent on vouchers this year.

That’s right.

A cool $742 million. Almost the exact same amount the state is shorting public school students.

This money all comes out of the same state budget line item, as the Ohio Legislative Service Commission notes below.

That’s right, folks. If you get rid of EdChoice vouchers, you’d be able to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan. And all but eliminate Akron’s budget shortfall.

Which brings me to the EdChoice lawsuit (as a matter of transparency, I’m on the steering committee of the group that’s bringing the suit).

Last week, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted embarrassed himself by lying to the Upper Arlington School Board about vouchers. That board — which notoriously was one of the few Ohio School Districts that never signed on to the DeRolph lawsuit in the 1990s — agreed to sign onto this voucher lawsuit after Husted’s quite public faceplant.

That was a huge victory for the plaintiffs.

However, Akron is still not on board with the lawsuit. Why wouldn’t they sign onto the suit, engage their staff and community to lobby the legislature to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan (one of whose architects was Akron’s then-Treasurer), and then explore these draconian cuts if all else fails?

I honestly don’t know.

If they would then have to go through with big cuts after trying the other options first, the cuts would occur after the community has worked together for months to address these issues and the district would have built up the community’s trust and buy in on whatever choices they make.

It’s pretty simple to me.

Instead of dividing the community and staff with massive cuts and huge levies, unify them on eliminating EdChoice and fighting to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan. Train the community’s frustration where it’s deserved — at the Ohio statehouse and Governor’s mansion.

The choice seems pretty clear.

I know some may be worried that somehow the state’s going to hurt Akron if the district demands these changes or something.

To those folks, I ask you to remember that Ohio leaders have taken all additional revenue for K-12 education since 1997 and given it to privately run charter schools and private school tuition subsidies, leaving students in Ohio’s public schools with about the same amount of state money as they received 27 years ago, adjusted for inflation.

How, then, has saying nothing helped students?

Just asking.