Ohio’s educational dilemma Times-Gazette 4/30/2009
Jim Surber
Of course, parents should have the choice to home-school, or send their children to public or charter schools.
The problem, as usual, comes down to money. All property owners (and renters indirectly) in Ohio, pay for public education through real estate taxes.
The remaining cost is paid by the state, again with tax dollars. The tough question is, should taxpayers’ money continue to be used to fund non-public educational institutions, many of which are operated for profit?
As I understand it, Ohio charter schools (on-line or not) are public schools. (He was corrected in comments.)
Homeschooling is another alternative, except the parents oversee and are accountable for their child’s education. Big difference, and it has been a huge controversy in and out of the Ohio homeschooling community.
He finished with this:
The governor’s proposal will require an answer by Ohio’s politicians to a difficult question: Shall taxpayers continue to fund private educational institutions, fully fund only those that are a part of the public system, or continue to fund both with higher taxes and less reform?
Are taxpayers funding private educational institutions? I understood that private corporations were receiving a great amount of taxpayer funding, but it was done through the public educational institutions.
Mary Nix did a little research in Ohio and responded to a Times-Gazette article in her post last summer.
Funding losses are not Ohio homeschooler’s fault…..- The Informed Parent
It was reported locally that the administrator’s comments followed a remark about the loss of funding to private schools and home educators. Perhaps the local public school administrator is confusing those enrolled in a public virtual school with home educators? He or she wouldn’t be the first. Except for tax dollars paid by the parents of home educated children, Ohio home educators do not bring money into a district, nor do they take money away from it. They simply happen to live in the district. However, public e-schoolers who live in the district and are enrolled in a statewide e-school that originates somewhere else in the state or country do require local funds to leave a district.
Reading Mary’s clarifications at The Informed Parent and Valerie Bonham Moon’s post here (Public school administrator wants newspaper exposé of homeschooling), concerning the Times-Gazette publisher’s piece (In Defense of Homeschoolers), it’s apparent that Ohio schools are in an unfortunate mishmash of inappropriate name calling.
Public School Programs Are Not Homeschooling- Alaskan Helen Hegener: Home Education Magazine Editor’s Blog
Around this same time a whole new class of public school programs, often delivered directly into the home, gained acceptance and began increasingly targeting homeschooling families. These programs came under many descriptive terms such as charter schools, cyber schools, cyber-charters, eschools, Independent Study Programs (ISPs), dual enrollment programs, Blended Schools Programs (BSPs), Programs for Non-Public Students (PNPS), Public School Alternative Programs (PSAPs), virtual schools, community schools and various other names. But these public school programs also came with public school regulations, which imposed testing and accountability requirements in alignment with national education goals and standards.
Mary said on May 3, 2009
Charters schools are public schools, but it gets really confusing due to the for profit entities that are involved. As always, I think knowing one’s rights and responsibilities really is useful and homeschooling should be kept far, far away from this debate. U
Unfortunately, I continue to see letters to the governor concerning charter school funding losses in the latest budget referred to as homeschooling losses. I certainly don’t want only the best for every child, but clarity of language benefits everyone concerned when these different choices are brought up.
Amy Cortez said on May 11, 2009
In 2006 I wrote basically a rant about taxes going up – AGAIN in Ohio to fund the schools. The links to the articles contained in the piece are now of course broken, but the sentiment of what was contained are bulleted in my article in The Eclectic
Telegraph
Amy Cortez said on May 11, 2009
My previous post was chopped, I guess due to improperly formatted links.
The article I wrote in 2006 basically pointed to 2 facts:
1. funding in Ohio has been declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court 4 times
2. Private and religious schools get tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer support each year from the Ohio Department of Education.
Yes. Taxpayers pay huge real estate taxes to fund private schools in Ohio. One of the biggest is K12, based in Virginia. If you are unsure about this, they state it at their website:
http://www.k12.com/ohva/
Myth #4 here:
http://www.k12.com/ohva/who_we_are/myths_about_online_schools/
and if school funding isn’t changed and the property owners aren’t relieved of the burden of supporting the schools, the beast will only get bigger and our property will just be too overtaxed to be able to sell it to anyone who can think…
http://www.etech.ohio.gov/
Amy Cortez, in one of the highest taxed districts in Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio