Anthony Wayne School District also facing budget issues
11 Jan 2007
The issue of funding our children’s public education is not just one related to Toledo Public Schools, as today’s Toledo Blade points out. Even with increasing enrollment, they are now facing a $1.25 million deficit as of June 30.
I wish I had the magic solution but I do know the current system of funding is not creating enough revenue for school systems to operate without having to go back to the tax payers asking for additional funding. I’m sure there are areas all of our local public school programs could cut, but a recent post written over on Roland’s Ramblings brings up something that I think would be interesting to discuss.
I thought it was also interesting to note that The Blade reported today that Monroe schools are also having some major finacial problems. It looks like schools in Michigan are having the same, if not worse, sort of problems as Ohio. Is the problem simply that public education has become remarkably expensive, as compared to one state or another’s “system” being the problem? What are all schools, in Michigan and Ohio, doing to keep their costs in line? Just wondering what people think.
Also, why are school expenses going up so much each year? The Blade article said that almost 85% of AW’s budget is for personnel costs. Are these costs going up each year?
January 11th, 2007 at 4:40 pmI can tell you two things that have hurt districts lately. First, rising health insurance premiums. Second, increasing gas prices. Things things have a ripple effect throughout a district’s budget.
January 11th, 2007 at 8:03 pmHealth Insurance can be a huge issue, I hadn’t thought about gas prices but depending on the transportation budget I can see where that would be a problem too. Unfortunately though I’m not sure if the State base was $6,000 how much that would help Toledo, I haven’t done the math yet but given the earlier post discovering the per student cost was around $15,000 – $6,000 might be a cut for them in funding.
January 11th, 2007 at 8:35 pmThe citizens of Anthony Wayne Schools never defeated a tax levy. The district was growing by leaps and bounds. So they decided to do some new construction and one building was a grand 3-story administration building with two elevators. Apparently the administration wasn’t satisfied with using the old building in downtown Whitehouse.
I wonder what that new building cost the tax-payers?
What is also strange is that ‘all was well’ under Randy Hardy, the long-serving superintendent who was just replaced in September. Did he not know of this impending crisis? Something is fishy.
January 11th, 2007 at 9:15 pmAs a resident of Monclova Township, my wife and I moved to the Anthony Wayne school system because of the excellent rating and the chance to give our daughters an excellent public school education.
There are concerns with the present funding scheme for public education in Ohio and they are valid concerns. I tried to talk about this dilemma in the past election and hopefully we’ll see some leadership in the General Assembly in the next two years to come up with an equitable solution which works for Ohioans.
Until our governmental leaders take ownership of this problem and propose possible solutions that will take some of the burden off the property owners, we’ll have only two choices: Pay our taxes and vote for additional millage when necessary; or defeat the levies when they are proposed and watch our children’s education suffer.
Encourage your representatives in state government to address this dilemma instead of constantly pushing it off into the future. In other words, demand that our “leaders” lead on this issue.
January 11th, 2007 at 10:39 pmYou may find this interesting:
January 12th, 2007 at 12:04 amAccess: Education Finance Litigation, School Funding Policy and Advocacy
That is a good source Roland, thank you, however I find it very depressing that ten years later some of the very same issues that were a concern still have not been addressed. I also agree with Mark’s point that we have to keep making this a focus as far as letting our elected representatives know that we are not only watching but tired of waiting.
The more I read about the information you provided on your blog about the district situation and how Hawaii handles it the more I wonder why that hasn’t been suggested here in Ohio….
January 12th, 2007 at 1:39 amthe more I wonder why that hasn’t been suggested here in Ohio….
January 12th, 2007 at 8:31 amThank you for the responses. Does anyone know what the typical teacher at Anthony Wayne makes per year? What are their benefits?
January 12th, 2007 at 1:53 pmarea salaries: http://www.toledoblade.com/assets/pdf/TO106411127.PDF
AW starting $32,756
January 13th, 2007 at 9:54 amNow how can anyone in good conscience advocate one school system for Ohio.
1. It’s logical
2. It makes sense
3 It would save gobs of money, implemented correctly.
Those 3-strikes are all clearly against doing the right thing…
January 15th, 2007 at 3:13 pmTo answer your question, Hooda Thunkit, I do advocate and for years have advocated one state-wide school system in Ohio. I do so in good conscience because I believe it would be more effective and efficient than to maintain the 723 individual school districts with 723 school administrations with 723 governing boards with 723 treasurers with 723 purchasing offices, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
January 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm