Fleeter study: not enough money spent educating economically disadvantaged
By Bob Robinson

GREENVILLE – “You can’t control the kids walking through the door,” said Dr. Howard B. Fleeter, a consultant with the Education Tax Policy Institute (ETPI). He noted 40 to 45 percent of Ohio’s population is at or below the federally defined poverty level, adding… “That’s scary!”

His point? These students are “economically disadvantaged” and their situation contributes to special learning problems. According to a study he completed, called ‘Apples to Apples,’ not enough emphasis is being placed on those special needs.

“If we don’t get a handle on this, we’re really in trouble,” he said.

Currently the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has three classifications in which it recognizes increased expense per student in the educational process: Economically Disadvantaged, English Language Proficiency and Special Education programs. Fleeter’s main focus for the report was on economically disadvantaged.

Just over half of the students in Mississinawa Valley Local fall into this category (52.9 percent), followed by Greenville City (46.95 percent). Tri-Village Local is at 42.58 percent; Ansonia Local 36.43 percent; Arcanum Butler Local 24.55 percent; Franklin-Monroe Local 19.44 percent and Versailles Exempt Village 18.53 percent.

“The impact of poverty is not linear,” Fleeter said. “The cost to educate one of these students is typically four times the cost to educate one not falling into one of these categories.”

The point of Fleeter’s study was to take the Ohio Department of Education’s (ODE) benchmark, published annually to show spending in Ohio’s 606 school districts, and compare actual spending per student to spending that takes into account a realistic look at the three special needs areas.

For instance, the state average unadjusted spending per student is $10,629. When ODE adjusts it for the special needs classifications, the average spending per student drops to $8,699. The adjustment allows for the additional money it takes to educate a student in one of these classifications. Fleeter says not enough emphasis is being placed on the economically disadvantaged. If it was, the average spending would drop even further to $8,076. He gave Texas, New York and California as examples of states already doing this.

“Most students come to school (in the fall) ready to learn,” Fleeter said, as opposed to those in poverty situations. He noted economically disadvantaged students tend to come from less stable environments.

“Summer learning loss is a big issue,” he added. “Most students are ready to pick up where they left off in the spring. Students coming from poverty often require a month just to get them back where they were when school recessed for the summer.”

Greenville City Schools Superintendent Doug Fries agreed with Fleeter’s assessment that more emphasis is needed but noted the district provides the best education possible for all its students with the funding it has available. There are very few English Language Proficiency students in the District, but considerable financial emphasis is placed on Special Education and Economically Disadvantaged.

To do more would require additional funding that currently is not available. Fries said an excellent program would be to make education available for these students in the summer.

“Give me the funding to hire the teachers and we’ll do it,” he said.

Fleeter pointed out it isn’t about funding, it’s about spending.

“Use the resources available,” he said. “After adjusting for the students with higher degrees of learning difficulty, use what’s left over for the rest of the students.”

He added his study could eventually be used for funding but there are “hoops” to jump through to make it realistic. One example he gave was the federal Title One funding. It would have to be backed out before funding formulas could be addressed.

According to Fleeter’s study, the 2013 Funding per Equivalent Pupil for each Darke County school district is listed as follows (ODE unweighted; ODE weighted; Fleeter’s adjusted weighted): Greenville $9,382; $7,717; $7,221; Versailles $8,281; $7,507; $7,411; Ansonia $10,472; $8,940; $8,574; Arcanum Butler $8,675; $7,825; $7,660; Franklin Monroe $8,565; $7,686; $7,583; Mississinawa Valley $10,364; $8,220; $7,605; and Tri-Village $8,936; $7,731; $7,262.

Funding numbers after adjustment takes into account the special challenges districts face when they have larger special needs populations than other districts, according to Fleeter.

Published courtesy of The Early Bird