Spending on K-12 education has increased continuously over the last several decades, while achievement remains flat (see Terry's piece in the Ohio Gadfly today for several graphs depicting this frustrating disconnect). What can districts and schools do, especially now that Ohio faces a $6-8 billion budget cliff in the next biennium and unmitigated spending on K-12 education is no longer an option?
District superintendents, treasurers, lawmakers, policymakers, and education reformers gathered September 27 in Columbus to find answers at Fordham's Stretching the School Dollar event (read about the book, published by Harvard Education Press, here). To discuss smart cost savings, we invited economist Marguerite Roza, Steven Wilson of the NYC-based charter management organization Ascend Learning, and Fordham's own Eric Osberg and Terry Ryan. The overwhelming consensus that emerged from the discussion was that despite the acute fiscal pain Ohio faces, such distress paves the way for dramatic reforms (silver lining?).
Roza and Wilson made several bold suggestions to save costs and rethink current initiatives, including:
- Put a halt to class-size reduction policies (Wilson said ?Smaller class sizes have brought us nothing? and noted that even increasing? class sizes from 22 to 32 students would still put us below many other high-performing countries).
- Reduce spending on electives and more on core courses. Roza's analysis?as laid out in her book chapter, ?Now is a great time to consider the per-unit cost of everything??shows that districts can end up spending more per student for activities like cheerleading than vital subjects like Algebra, without even realizing it. Costing out spending in per pupil amounts is a good first step toward making informed decisions about spending tradeoffs.
- Eliminate the master's pay bump in Ohio, which is approximately $7000 per teacher, and re-channel that money in more effective ways.
- Utilize online learning to save costs and ensure that highly effective teachers reach more students than just their own class roster.
- Allow for greater experimentation and avoid one-size-fits-all solutions (statewide mandates).
- Demand change from lawmakers (Wilson argued there's more power in superintendents and principals coming together and demanding change from the Statehouse than the other way around).
You can view the panelists' Power Point presentation online here. And be sure to check out the full video of our event, ?Stretching the School Dollar: Insights for the Buckeye State,? online here.
- Jamie Davies O'Leary
