Ohio: Privatization Is a Challenge to Our Democracy

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Education and Adequacy writes the following description of the assault on public education in that state:

FY2014-FY2015 State Budget Proposal:  Assault on school districts and boards of education

July 1, 2013

The state is responsible for a thorough and efficient system of public common schools.  School district boards of education are responsible for delivering educational opportunities to the children of the community.

Charter schools and vouchers bypass the boards of education in Ohio except for the few charters that are operated by a board of education.

HB 59 greatly expands the choice programming in Ohio and opens the door to the nationwide scheme to remove school funding from the system.  The money-follows-the-child mantra is a code for dismantling the public school system which is democratic operated, community-by-community all across Ohio and America.  The board of education is the fourth branch of government and is being systematically eroded and dismantled.

A bit of history is in order:

Early in the history of Ohio, education was deemed to be a fundamental function of government.  In fact, prior to Ohio statehood, the Land Ordinance of 1785 set aside the sixteenth section of each township* for the support of schools.  “There shall be reserved the Lot N16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools.” The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 declared education a governmental function in Article 3: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

This 1787 provision was, nearly word for word, included in both the 1802 and 1851 Ohio Constitutions.  In 1821, the legislature enacted the first general school act which provided for the establishment of school districts within townships and made property within the township subject to taxation authorized by the electors.

In 1825, legislation was enacted to require that townships be divided into school districts and to require the election of directors for each district.  Also, each community was required to levy taxes for the support of its schools.

In 1847, legislation was enacted which required the entire state to be divided into school districts.  Then, in 1851, Ohioans adopted a new Constitution which required the state to secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.  It was determined by law that locally elected school officials would be responsible for delivering the state’s educational programming to the children of each community. This governmental arrangement for public education was reaffirmed and strengthened by the 1912 constitutional amendment which provided “by law…for the organization, administration and control of the public school system of the state supported by public funds: provided, that each school district embraced wholly or in part within any city shall have the power by referendum vote to determine for itself the number of members and the organization of the district board of education…”  The 1912 amendment reconfirmed the role of the state and boards of education in ensuring high quality educational opportunities for the children in all of the communities throughout Ohio.

This legal framework provides that each school community, as a part of the state’s common school system, will operate its district through an elected board of education.  The school district is a governmental unit responsible for the delivery of educational programming to all of the children of all the people within the district.  The board of education is truly the FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT.

This common school arrangement is fundamental, workable and essential to the preservation of democracy.  The time-honored practice of each community operating its schools via an elected board of education is being challenged on many fronts. TheCenter on Reinventing Public Education helps communities develop alternative governance systems for public K-12 education.  The Center’s founder, Dr. Paul Hill, was involved in the New Orleans “reform” that resulted in four out of five students ending up in charter schools. The Fordham Foundation, a leading advocate of replacing the public common school with private operations, put out a policy brief on April 23 entitled,Redefining the School District in Tennessee.  The Brief states, “As the challenges of education governance loom ever larger and the dysfunction and incapacity of the traditional K-12 system reveal themselves as major roadblocks to urgently needed reforms across that system, many have asked, ‘What’s the alternative?'”  This is not only a challenge to the elected board of education concept, but to democracy. 

A community that is stripped of its right to elect board of education members is one that loses a democratic right.  If people can be stripped of the right to elect board of education members, they can be denied the right to elect other public officials.  If people are perceived as not being capable of the discretion to elect members to the fourth branch of government, why would they be capable of electing persons to any branch and level of government?  Citizens’ cherished right to vote is dwindled by replacing elected governmental official with appointed persons.

Elected board members who believe in the democratic process should resist, with passion and conviction, the movement to remove the election process from the fourth branch of government or to undermine the elected board’s birthright to manage their schools.

*A township was a six by six miles land area divided into 36 one by one mile sections, thus 36 sections per township.

William Phillis
Ohio E & A