Celebrating Catholic Schools

Northeast Ohio Catholic School Supporters,

It is an exciting time for Catholic schools -- among advocacy, healthy activity, and celebrations, great things are happening. Catholic Schools Week begins January 31 and will be punctuated by numerous school events as well as a diocesan-wide celebration of Mass by Bishop Malesic from the Cathedral (with virtual viewing) at 10 a.m. Tuesday.


The Governor’s executive budget will be unveiled as soon as next week, the first formal step in the state's budget process. Advocates for schools and other causes will then be most active through June 30. From now through then, we will update you regularly on the issues most important to Catholic schools. If you wish to learn more about the intricacies of the process, see the wonderful resource from the Center for Community Solutions called Follow The Money (4th Edition), available at the links or download free online here.


As promised, here is a summary from the Catholic Conference of Ohio detailing some of the legislative changes in the last session that pertain to schools. Most important to Catholic schools are the changes to EdChoice as well as the flexibility of alternate assessments for state testing, and some temporary COVID policies for subs and the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.


So far this COVID-19 year, every single Northeast Ohio Catholic schools has served students in person, fully or in hybrid, and most all are doing so currently. Catholic educators are being prioritized with all other school personnel in accordance with the state’s vaccination program. And all schools continue to offer a virtual option to families who choose it. More COVID-19 data is below.


Finally, today we near the close of National School Choice Week, and there is still time to like and support #schoolchoice on your favorite social media.


Please read on for a recent primer from the Thomas B. Fordham foundation on funding misconceptions and a report on the growing public support for school choice. We hope you will join the growing numbers who advocate for the ability to choose Catholic schools!


Sincerely,

Frank O’Linn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland



School Funding Misconceptions


In light of the legislature's deep dive into school funding, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's Aaron Churchill wrote recently on mischaracterizations of Ohio school funding that are commonplace in media reports. The full article, which was published just prior to the end of the last session, is available here. The following is an excerpt:

School funding has been front-and-center over the past month in Ohio with the high profile Cupp-Patterson plan driving media coverage. While the legislation itself has merits and drawbacks, the news reports on school funding have unfortunately been riddled with errors and misconceptions. That’s a shame, as the topic is already so poorly understood by the general public. This piece is not meant to criticize the entire press corps—many journalists work hard to understand the issue and report it accurately—but to illustrate some common myths that continue to be filtered through the media.


First up, a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The article opens with this line:


“The Ohio House is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would bring sweeping changes to how education is funded, since the current scheme was found unconstitutional 23 years ago.”

It’s true that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the school funding system in place at that time was unconstitutional. But to say that the “current scheme” was found unconstitutional is nonsense. As I show in a new report, Ohio’s funding system is much different today than it was during the years in which the DeRolph lawsuit was being heard. Indeed, a reasonable reading of the data yields a conclusion that today’s system would probably pass constitutional muster with flying colors.


The article continues:

“HB 305 is the result of years of work and negotiations in the public education community, since it would change how much money the state’s 610 school districts receive from the state and raise locally for education.”


This bolded clause (emphasis mine) is an odd characterization of House Bill 305, the legislative version of the Cupp-Patterson plan. The sentence starts off well, correctly stating that the bill changes the amount of money districts receive from the state. But HB 305 wouldn’t necessarily change the amount of local funding received by districts. Under the plan, districts would, per continuing law, still be required to levy a minimum local property tax rate of 2 percent to receive state funds. They would still be allowed to supplement funding by asking local voters to approve higher tax rates. In the end, the plan doesn’t call for any changes to the way local tax rates are set or property values assessed.


A sentence later, the piece allows advocates to misrepresent Ohio’s current funding system:

“Proponents argue that the current funding scheme isn’t a formula and what they’ve created in HB 305 is one that is logical and can be defended.”


The proponents of HB 305 wrongly suggest that Ohio doesn’t have a school funding formula. Though suspended for FYs 2020–21, the state does indeed have one, and state legislators could easily restart the existing formula in the next biennium. Though it’s undermined by “caps and guarantees”—policies that work outside of the formula—the current model generally delivers state dollars, via formulas in state law, to the districts that need them the most. Unfortunately, only the proponents get their say about the current system. The article doesn’t include any comments from impartial sources (call me, maybe?) or even those who might oppose the plan.



National Survey finds support for school choice at all-time high


Survey Report:


https://www.edchoice.org/research/schooling-in-america-public-opinion-on-education-during-pandemic/


Parents wanting different educational settings for their children post-pandemic aligns with record-high support for school choice programs. In our fall survey, education savings accounts (ESAs) received the highest level of public support (81%) of any education choice policy in the eight years EdChoice has been polling the policy. Both support and opposition for school vouchers were likewise at all-time highs, while support for tax-credit scholarships (78%) increased significantly since 2019. These support levels were higher than those reported by PDK in its spring poll, which found a majority (53%) of Americans supported some form of private school choice, while the Manhattan Institute found in the fall that between 46 and 52 percent of voters in political battleground states believed giving parents the right to choose their children’s school would raise the overall quality of K–12 education in America.




COVID-19 Update


Below are the COVID-19 cases per capita reported on the state's data system for an apples-to-apples comparison of Diocese of Cleveland Catholic schools to the 8 counties in which they serve. Catholic schools are among the safest places to be! The holiday surge appears to be behind us, accounting for the recent bump in cases. We still see no transmissions traced to the classroom, in keeping with the state of Ohio’s research finding little to no spread at school where masks and distancing protocols are in place.





Some Inspiration this COVID-19 School Year


For an inspiring reflection, read Partnership Schools leader Christian Dallavis’ blog post on viewing teachers, school leaders, parents and students this year as “reluctant prophets,” and the grace and beauty in their witness.


“What these teachers and parents have in common, with each other and with Jonah, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, is that they have all shown up.” http://www.partnershipnyc.org/the-grace-of-yes





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