The Morning Journal, OH
04-01-07
Voucher schools made Morgan's tenure in Lorain challenging
SCOT ALLYN, Morning Journal Writer
LORAIN -- While Lorain schools Superintendent Dee Morgan worked to improve
conditions in city schools from 2001 through this year, circumstances outside the
district's doors made her job ever more challenging.
Michelle Francis, a legislative specialist for the Ohio School Board Association,
said the rise of voucher schools across the state in the last five years has
deprived urban school districts such as Lorain of some of their best students and
much of their state funding. The Ohio legislature hastened this process with the
Educational Choice Voucher Program, enacted two years ago and recently
targeted for elimination outside the city of Cleveland by Gov. Ted Strickland.
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When the program was created, 14,000 vouchers were made available to
students in poorly performing schools, Francis said. But the vouchers, good for
up to $4,250 for elementary and middle school or $5,000 for high school, were
given only to students who had been accepted to a private school first.
''So voucher schools get to pick and choose the students,'' Francis said. ''Public
schools must educate all students. Individuals have a right to a public education.
But with vouchers you're taking that away and giving it to a private industry.''
As urban districts have lost students, they've had to close buildings and eliminate
teaching positions, Francis said.
''The students who are left behind suffer,'' she said. ''When students leave for
private schools, they take state dollars with them. But districts still have to heat
their buildings, pay the light bill and provide teachers.''
The students who take advantage of the vouchers are often the best students in
the class, Francis said. Moreover, public school districts are still responsible for
the transportation of voucher students to their private schools. And if a district
has received extra funding for economically disadvantaged students, that funding
goes with the student to his or her voucher school, according to Francis.
William Poston, an education professor emeritus from Iowa State
University who studied Lorain schools, said students who leave public schools
for voucher schools are often better off economically.
''Those who can afford to move, leave,'' he said. ''Those who can't are forced to
stay. It's more and more challenging. Enrollment decline is devastating.
Maintenance and upkeep of buildings doesn't drop because you have fewer kids
in a room.''
In those circumstances, the superintendent is forced to make hard choices, he
said.
''The administrator's job is horrendous,'' he said. ''They have to let people go and
cut back. It's very demoralizing for everyone in the system. Keeping a
commitment to excellence is more and more challenging.''
sallyn@morningjournal.com