How Much Will Ohio Really Cut School Budgets?

I attended a fascinating talk today titled: Regional Forum on School Funding. David Varda, the Executive Director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials and Andy Benson, the Executive Director of Ohio Education Matters, presented on topics related to Governor Kasich's recent proposed state budget.

The focus of Varda's presentation was on what some of the specific numbers might be attached to the cuts. Some of the highlights:

• Funding for special education will not be increased for the next fiscal year.
• Money from the stimulus package that the state was giving to school districts has expired and will not be replaced.
• Career technical foundation funding will stay the same, as these programs have historically seen a spike in attendance during recessions.
• Gifted education funding has been eliminated, but the dollars have been moved to the general education fund.
• The Ohio Evidence Based Model will be repealed but had never received money for implementation anyway.
• The pension system will potentially change, with the state and teachers each paying in 12%. Currently, teachers pay 10% while the state pays 14%.
• Any citizens that financially qualifies will be able to obtain school vouchers.

Andy Benson spoke next and had some very interesting research about how to save schools money across the state. Specifics about saving schools money and dealing with the education budget cuts can be found on the Ohio Education Matters website.

Some of the highlights were:

• The state of Ohio needs to provide for schools
• Regional support systems
• More flexibility and tools for change
• Rewards for and encouragement for efficiency

Benson also suggested that the Ohio education budget cuts must come with more autonomy for the schools.

Better regional support is needed to help schools take advantages of key cost-saving measures. Some of the ideas for cutting costs were lowering health care costs by buying health coverage in ever larger pools and encouraging digital innovations to curb cutting classes like Advanced Placement or language classes that many times have low enrollment but high impact.

Benson also highlighted work in creating measures of efficiency for non-instructional activities like maintenance, transportation, and food services. Ohio Education Matters studies estimated that 35% of educational funds are spent on non-instructional activities and between 500 million and 1.3 billion dollars could be saved by increasing efficiency in these areas.

One of the most talked about ideas was shared services. These would be methods were neighboring school districts could create more efficient services by sharing. Some of the more obvious areas of collaboration were food services and transportation. But digital innovations could also be shared, as one district could offer a class to students from many districts. 

Shared services was also highlighted because it can take advantage of some of the benefits usually associated with consolidation while avoiding the negatives of closing schools or entire districts.

The general public can look for the Ohio budget language to come out as early as next Friday. At that point, a better idea of the impact of the Ohio education budget cuts will be available.

Keep the Cincinnati Neighborhood Gardens Program Funded in 2009 & 2010

Sign the Petition
Please Keep the Cincinnati Neighborhood Gardens Program Funded in 2009 & 2010

To:
Mayor Mark Mallory, Vice Mayor David Crowley, and the Cincinnati City Council:

We, concerned residents of Cincinnati and Hamilton County respectfully request that you fully fund the Cincinnati Neighborhood Gardens Program for $40,000 in 2009 and for $40,000 in 2010. Cutting this program to $0 does not seem an acceptable solution to budget constrictions.

The Neighborhood Gardens Program has 4 currently stated goals:

* Assist low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in developing vacant lots into gardens

* Supplement these residents' food budgets with fresh produce
* Clean up and maintain Cincinnati neighborhoods
* Provide access to educational recreational opportunities


Listed are examples of the current Neighborhood Gardens Program benefits:

* 42 Community Gardens
* Over 600 Gardeners
* Provides outreach to over 2000 community residents
* Donated 1524 Pounds of Food in 2007
* Recorded 7,384 Volunteers Hours in 2007


We believe these goals and achievements are an excellent argument for the programs continued funding.

Additionally, the City of Cincinnati's own "Climate Protection Action Plan" calls for the expansion of the current community garden program on pg. 180 under Recommendation #3. This underlies the importance of Vice Mayor Crowley's recent proposal (Item: 200801277 ) that city controlled vacant lots be offered at nominal costs to residents who will agree to farm or garden the land and maintain it free of blight or nuisance conditions.

Cincinnati's "Climate Protection Action Plan" also sites the American Community Gardening Association, saying," community gardening improves peoples' quality of life by providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food, reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education."

The budget states that part of the reason for the programs financial cuts are the City's desire to fund the Cincycare Pilot Program, which will serve 2,000 residents of Cincinnati. While we recognize the importance of health care for all and believe this a great goal for the City, we also believe that this goal can be met without cutting the Neighborhood Garden program.

Solutions to consider:

* Most simply, the budget of the Cincycare pilot program could be cut to $460,000 per year in 2009 and 2010. This represents only 8% of the total budget of this pilot program, while the cut to the Neighborhood Gardens program is 100%.
* Currently, the City Manager's Budget Message of 2009/2010 states on pg. 39 that TOTAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT is $4,898,000 in 2009". Page pg. 14 states that the Economic Development budget will show increased revenue from $0 in 2008 to $46,510 in 2009. This money could make up the difference in funding the Neighborhood Gardens program, considering the loss to the Economic Development budget would only be 0.9% of the Economic Development budget.
* The Strategic Program for Urban Redevelopment (SPUR) budget went from $0 to $500,000 in 2009 and $500,000 in 2010. Some of this money could be utilized to fund community gardens?


The benefits of community gardens programs are many and they are finding support more and more within communities around the country. Directly and indirectly, local and nutritious food helps contribute to solving many problems our city, county, state, and nation faces, including: the health care crisis, energy independence, climate change, food security, and economic stability.

We encourage you to fully fund Cincinnati's Neighborhood Gardens Program in 2009 and 2010.

Thank you,

Concerned Citizens of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

Sign the Petition