Members may focus on funding, charters

The Plain Dealer

11/10/2006

Scott Stephens

This week’s election for the State Board of Education promises to determine far more than what Ohio will teach about evolution.

While science got the headlines in the costly and often nasty Summit County race between Tom Sawyer and Deborah Owens Fink, Democratic victories also may reshape charter schools and school funding.

Newcomers won four of the five races for seats on the state board. They include two well-known Democrats: Sawyer, a former congressman, and John Bender, a former state representative from Lorain County.

The terms of four more appointed board members will expire Dec. 31, enabling the new governor, Democrat Ted Strickland, to either reappoint or replace them.

That means the 19-person board could have eight new members come January and be transformed into a bully pulpit for Strickland-backed policy.

That’s significant because the governor-elect has pledged to work with legislative leaders to reform Ohio’s school-funding system, which the Ohio Supreme Court has repeatedly said is unconstitutional. If Strickland wants to push for a constitutional amendment to change school funding, he will have some valuable allies on the state school board.

“There’s going to be a constitutional amendment,” Bender said before Tuesday’s election. “I will support and campaign for it. Then, working at a policy level with a new Democratic governor, maybe we can shift away from our reliance on property taxes.”

Sawyer, a former schoolteacher, agreed that a constitutional change is necessary because of House Bill 920, a 1976 tax-relief law.

Before the law, revenue to schools increased if real estate in a community appreciated. But House Bill 920 freezes that revenue at the amount generated the first year a new tax is collected, forcing districts to go to voters when revenue doesn’t keep pace with costs.

“People aren’t voting against their schools,” Sawyer said. “They’re voting against the means of funding their schools.”

The new board could also put some pressure on charter schools. That would most likely come in calls for tougher oversight and changes in the law that now allows non-elected charter school boards to use public money to hire a private, for-profit firm to run their affairs.

“In my opinion, it’s taxation without representation and it needs to be changed,” said Sam Schloemer, an incumbent board member from Cincinnati who retained his seat Tuesday.

Among the board’s direct duties is supervision of the Ohio Department of Education and the hiring and firing of the state superintendent. Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman was hired in 1998 to replace John Goff, who retired.

Zelman plans to continue under the new board and new governor, spokesman J.C. Benton said Wednesday. “She wants to retire in Ohio,” Benton said.

Even Owens Fink, who lost her seat Tuesday, said she wants to continue - in some capacity - to push for education reform in Ohio” There are not permanent victories or losses in politics,” she said. “But it was never about politics for me. It was about the kids.”