GOVERNOR TAFT'S RESPONSE TO DEROLPH DECISION
COLUMBUS (December 11, 2002) - The following is a statement from Governor Bob Taft in response to the Ohio Supreme Court's latest DeRolph decision.
"Today the Ohio Supreme Court ended the 11-year-old DeRolph school-funding lawsuit.
"The Court vacated its September 2000 ruling in DeRolph III and relinquished any ongoing oversight of the case. The DeRolph case is over.
"The Court has ordered that their judgments in DeRolph I and II are law of the case.
"Working with the legislature, we've made significant and systematic changes to our school funding system in response to those decisions.
"I continue to believe with the changes we made pursuant to DeRolph I and II, Ohio has a constitutional system of funding our schools.
"Since the DeRolph II decision, we have:
· Increased per pupil funding to $4,949, a 22 percent increase;
· Spent a record $1.7 billion to renovate and repair school buildings;
· Enacted a new school funding formula that reflects the basic amount
needed for the highest performing school districts;
· Implemented Parity Aid to provide supplemental funds for low wealth
school districts, and
· Enacted comprehensive student standards and an aligned system of testing
and accountability.
"Together, the legislature and I have indeed made progress, and much of
that has occurred because of the Supreme Court's earlier decisions.
"More importantly, Ohio's school children have made progress:
· Passage of the fourth grade reading and science rates increased by
8 percent last year;
· Three out of four schools districts in Ohio showed improvement in their
report cards;
· The number of school districts in "academic watch" has dropped
from 147 last year to only 50 today;
· The number of school districts rated "excellent" has increased
from 28 last year to 71 today.
"Today's decision does not lessen my commitment to a quality education for every child in Ohio.
"Even in these tough economic times, we will continue to invest more to increase basic aid, parity aid and renovate school buildings.
"We will continue to implement our student success initiatives to ensure a system of high standards and rigorous accountability.
"Over the next few weeks, there will be a good deal of analysis of this
decision, and there may be disagreement over what it means for the future.
"But the most important thing for us to remember is that we must make sure
every child, in every part of Ohio has access to a good quality education.
"That is what I have attempted to do for the past four years and what I will continue to do in the next four years."
# # #
Contact: Joe Andrews, Governor's Office, at (614) 644-0957.
OHIO EDUCATION REFORM HIGHLIGHTS
SINCE DEROLPH II (May 11, 2000)
School Funding Formula
· Funding to Department of Education increased $1.4 billion over the FY02-03 biennium compared to FY01-02.
· Increased per pupil spending amounts more than 22%, from $4,052 in FY00 to $4,949 in FY03.
· Modeled our school funding on the state's highest performing schools by changing the computation of the basic aid amount to reflect the highest performing districts meeting 20 out of 27 performance standards.
· Developed and began implementation of parity aid to provide supplemental funding for lower wealth school districts.
· Provided a 3-mill excess cost supplement to take effect in FY03 to ensure that no school district will need to levy more than 3 mills to cover their local calculated costs for special education, vocational education and transportation. The state pays any calculated costs above what can be generated from 3 mills.
· In FY02, removed caps that had previously restricted the degree to which state support for a school district could grow.
· To eliminate the need for school districts to borrow money: (1) Created a "fiscal caution" category to allow the state to be more proactive in isolating districts that have financial challenges and intervening before the need for borrowing is necessary; and (2) Authorized the state to make catastrophic grants that need not be repaid for major unforeseen events, such as natural disasters or major business closures, that place an unmanageable fiscal burden on a school district's finances.
· Eliminated the "budget reserve" mandate and reduced the required percentages of the textbook and instructional materials funds.
· Addressed "phantom revenue" by implementing gap aid and expanding it to include transportation, using recognized valuation and introducing parity aid.
· From FY92 to FY02, Ohio's operating expenditures on primary and secondary education from the general revenue and lottery profits increased from $3.6 billion to $6.5 billion, an 81% increase. (excludes federal funds, capital funds and property tax relief).
School Construction and Renovation
· Since May 2000, the Ohio School Facilities Commission, under Governor Taft's $10-billion, 12-year "Rebuilding Ohio's Schools Initiative" has:
o Been appropriated more than $1.9 billion (FY 01, 02, 03, & 04);
o Disbursed over $1.78 billion (May 2000 to November 2002);
o Implemented the following construction programs: Accelerated Urban Initiative,
Emergency Assistance Program, Federal Emergency Repair Program, and Hardship
Loan Program;
o Expanded the Expedited Local Partnership Program from a 15-district pilot
program to a full program with current participation of over 250 districts;
o Expanded the Exceptional Need Program from a pilot to a full program;
o Developed a system of professional consultants to assist districts in developing
plans for the maintenance of their buildings;
o Completed the construction or renovation of over 140 buildings;
o Finished full-district projects in 44 districts.
· Currently nearly $2.5 million is spent every day on school construction and repair.
Student Success
· Created a Governor's Commission for Student Success, whose recommendations provided the basis for Ohio's Student Success Law to reform Ohio's education system and improve student achievement. The focus of the commission and the new law is to reform Ohio's education system by implementing rigorous academic standards, aligned and improved testing, and improved accountability.
· State Board of Education adopted new language arts (reading and writing) and math standards in 2001, and new social studies and science standards in 2002. During 2003, standards will be developed for foreign language, technology and the arts. The year following the adoption of each set of standards, a model curriculum and aligned assessments are developed.
· Made great gains in the passage rate in 4th grade reading and science - with test scores jumping 8 percentage points in both subjects statewide last year.
· Fourth graders also topped last year's results by six percentage points in citizenship and three points in math.
· Sixth graders jumped ahead five percentage points in writing and three points in citizenship.
· Three out of every four school districts in Ohio are showing improvement in their report cards.
· Last year, only 28 of Ohio's school districts met the level of "excellent." On the latest report card, 71 districts were rated "excellent."
· Last year, 147 school districts were in "academic watch" or "academic emergency." Today, we have dropped down to only 50 school districts in those categories.
· OhioReads reached a mark of more than 45,000 volunteers -- more than doubling Governor Taft's original goal of 20,000 reading tutors. In 2002, fourth grade reading proficiency test scores improved by 8%, up from 56% in 2001 and 64% in 2002. Schools also reported that 89-92% of students are reading more books as a result of OhioReads.
Teacher Quality
· Appointed the Governor's Commission on Teaching Success, bringing together a broad-based team of educators, business and community leaders, parents and students to help Ohio ensure student success by providing the best possible teachers. The commission is currently working on issues including teacher recruitment, training, professional development, teacher support and retention.
· Provided support to increase the number of National Board Certified
Teachers in Ohio to 1,765 certified teachers in 2002, ranking Ohio as the fifth
state in the nation in the number of teachers holding this highest certification
of the profession.