Open Enrollment in the State of Ohio

should Ohio Change


  • Total voters
    40
State funding follows an open enrollment student to their new district. To suggest someone should have to pay a higher tax rate to attend another publicly funded school is absurd.

In fact , any district that does not offer open enrollment is doing it’s local tax payers a disservice because it isn’t bringing in any new state funding from potential open enrollment students.

Every single district should offer open enrollment. Ones like Canton city that have been bleeding students for years don’t offer it and it makes zero sense to me.
 
State funding follows an open enrollment student to their new district. To suggest someone should have to pay a higher tax rate to attend another publicly funded school is absurd.

In fact , any district that does not offer open enrollment is doing it’s local tax payers a disservice because it isn’t bringing in any new state funding from potential open enrollment students.

Every single district should offer open enrollment. Ones like Canton city that have been bleeding students for years don’t offer it and it makes zero sense to me.
How much state funding follows that OE student to their new district?
 
I am also perplexed on the comment about providing your own transportation.

Districts that lose students to private schools on Ed choice vouchers are required to then bus those students outside of their own districts to their new private school.

Why aren’t they required to bus students they lose to other public schools via open enrollment ? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Just to be clear I’m against any district having to bus students to areas outside of their own but that is indeed the case when it comes to private school Ed choice students.
 
How much state funding follows that OE student to their new district?
Crest view high school claims approx. $6,000 per student they get.

 
Crest view high school claims approx. $6,000 per student they get.

But what if the new district, on average, spends $8000 per student? ?
 
One would assume that number is formulated using mostly fixed costs and that number would then decrease as student population increases.
 
State funding follows an open enrollment student to their new district. To suggest someone should have to pay a higher tax rate to attend another publicly funded school is absurd.

In fact , any district that does not offer open enrollment is doing it’s local tax payers a disservice because it isn’t bringing in any new state funding from potential open enrollment students.

Every single district should offer open enrollment. Ones like Canton city that have been bleeding students for years don’t offer it and it makes zero sense to me.
It's not absurd. I know state funding follows that student, but what about local funding per student? That stays put. It can most definitely put a drain on local taxpayers paying for their local school. Why should a community pay a higher tax rate for other families paying lower taxes to attend their schools.

Look, I'm not trying to justify our school funding system in Ohio, it's back--wards and illegal. It leads to all kinds of inequalities. However; to suggest not offering open enrollment is doing a disservice simply isn't accurate. For some districts, it makes perfect economic sense to go Open Enrollment, for others it does not.
 
IMO If there is a student whose family lives in the district of a failing district, they should be able to open enroll into a neighboring public district that is in better standing. Similar to Edchoice to privates, but allow it for public to public as well.
 
It's not absurd. I know state funding follows that student, but what about local funding per student? That stays put. It can most definitely put a drain on local taxpayers paying for their local school. Why should a community pay a higher tax rate for other families paying lower taxes to attend their schools.

Look, I'm not trying to justify our school funding system in Ohio, it's back--wards and illegal. It leads to all kinds of inequalities. However; to suggest not offering open enrollment is doing a disservice simply isn't accurate. For some districts, it makes perfect economic sense to go Open Enrollment, for others it does not.
whats funny is that even when the Plymouth colony was founded they used property taxes to fund public schools. It is still used in many of the states in the Northeast of America. I find it interesting that for a large chunk of our history we funded public schools that way.

I just forsee the state not changing school funding from predominately based on property taxes because people are so beholden to the local school structure. I would think you would almost want to move toward county school systems if you were to change the funding model. I think of a state like Virginia in this case. I am not really sure what the best answer is to the school funding issue in Ohio and I don't think anyone has a good idea, that's why they haven't really addressed it since the DeRolph ruling.

Either way, public education in Ohio will continue to be a political football because its easy to rile up either party's base about to get them out to vote. The only ones who get screwed over by that are the teachers and students.
 
IMO If there is a student whose family lives in the district of a failing district, they should be able to open enroll into a neighboring public district that is in better standing. Similar to Edchoice to privates, but allow it for public to public as well.

Failing district or not. A student or family could be dissatisfied for many reasons. I also think "neighboring" is a very inconsistent defining factor for cb scoring. Commute or distance would be better. Some schools are so close to each other it makes "home district" a rather obsolete term for modern purposes.
 
Every single district should offer open enrollment. Ones like Canton city that have been bleeding students for years don’t offer it and it makes zero sense to me.
We were the fastest growing district in the state for several years. Are we somehow supposed to not only build schools as fast as possible to give classroom space for our residents, but build even more for outsiders? Ridiculous.

Government decisions are best made at the most local level possible. One size doesn't fit all at the state or federal level for this issue.
 
Versailles has open enrollment for some grades that are smaller in # but closed in other grades because classroom # are already full.
Local level decision!
 
Let’s be honest…. Way too
many school districts in the state of Ohio. The smaller failing districts should be absorbed by bigger quality schools.

I always chuckle seeing public districts 10 mins a part but the success of those districts academically is drastically different.
 
Let’s be honest…. Way too
many school districts in the state of Ohio. The smaller failing districts should be absorbed by bigger quality schools.

I always chuckle seeing public districts 10 mins a part but the success of those districts academically is drastically different.
Do you think the smaller thriving districts should absorb the larger failing ones as well?
 
Not taking sides on this matter one way or the other, but an observation...

Here in the "Fertile Circle" of suburban Columbus, one of the sad rituals that takes place every fall is the removal of several hundred students whose families have enrolled kids using a false address. Don't assume that it's just large urban districts generating the students - in our district, many of the affected kids come from Madison County districts.

The suburban districts would have to instantly increase classroom capacity by 50% were "adjacent district open enrollment" to become a state-mandated policy. The state per-student funding doesn't nearly match the total funding amount, and very few of the districts will ever qualify for state building program. Unless drastic changes were made to the state funding formula, the local residents would then have to cough up a very large property tax increase to educate students from other districts who are not paying the same rates.

It's not the same situation as in the rural district in which I grew up, where the "adjacent districts" are many miles away from the physical facilities and don't see a wide variance in school quality.
 
How about this, you can enroll your kid anywhere you want, first come first serve but, you have to pay the taxes to the district that you select as well as providing your own transportation if you don’t live in the respective chosen district.
 
You can already do that now moron, it’s called private school. You can pay tuition and send your kids to any private school that will accept them. As for your taxes, they won’t cover the cost of a private high school even if government gives you the per pupil costs. You’ll still need more out of pocket. By the way even if you can afford private education most lower middle or impoverished families or families with multiple kids cannot. Bottom line, you need viable public schools. Get over your pro Trump, extreme Right Wing agenda and think.
If you make under 200% of the federal poverty level Ed Choice will pay your tuition to a private school of your choice.

So, pretty much everything you posted is false

At least about $6,000 per year, which pays for a large number of private schools in Ohio.

A large percentage of the children at my kids' school(s) are lower income (adjusted for family size as well) and attend via EdChoice funding.
 
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Austintown local schools had a big fight between super and citizens who hate open enrollment a few years ago . They did financial study and the open enrollment process cost the school over 500,000 a year. So getting open enrollment students does not equal a financial windfall for the district. the state money just covers some of the expenses and your community pays the difference. Some state allow open enrollment but they have limitations like if the school is too populated and no transportation for kid if out of district. Ohio education system is already way too dependent on local property taxes and now the school who are wealthy will have to ask their people to cough up even more levy money to pay for kids who dont live in your town. Real nice. State has cheaped out on education for last 30 years. Consolidate districts so we dont have 600 administrations to pay for supers and rest of district staff would be a good start.
 
Austintown local schools had a big fight between super and citizens who hate open enrollment a few years ago . They did financial study and the open enrollment process cost the school over 500,000 a year. So getting open enrollment students does not equal a financial windfall for the district. the state money just covers some of the expenses and your community pays the difference. Some state allow open enrollment but they have limitations like if the school is too populated and no transportation for kid if out of district. Ohio education system is already way too dependent on local property taxes and now the school who are wealthy will have to ask their people to cough up even more levy money to pay for kids who dont live in your town. Real nice. State has cheaped out on education for last 30 years. Consolidate districts so we dont have 600 administrations to pay for supers and rest of district staff would be a good start.
Agree, also would like to see 2 Supt’s at most per county also Treasurers there is no need for each district to have their own
 
Not sure if this was answered or not regarding tuition and school taxes. Some schools require tuition. In Montgomery County, I know Brookville charges a tuition, but I forget what that number is

Some schools have open enrollment rules such as a student has to be coming from a “touching” district. Some schools are closed for certain grades because they have a big class. Again, from experience, the district I reside has a 1 desk policy. This means that any particular grade is “open” until 1 desk in each of that grade’s classroom is left. They have that 1 available desk in the event that a kid ACTUALLY moves into district. So, if 3rd grade has a total of 90 desks and 89 students currently, then 3rd grade is a “closed” grade. Every year, OE families have to re-apply for enrollment. It’s mainly a formality but required by law.

Finally as I understand it, the per pupil expenditure follows the student. For example, student lives in District “A”, which spends $3,000/student on their education. That student’s $3,000 gets allocated to District “B.” It gets adjusted through state funding. If District “B” spends $5,000 on their students, I believe (but not 100%) that either A. The state makes up the difference, or B. District “B” eats the cost.

So, in a sense, that family IS paying for their child to open enroll in one way or another. I will agree with the poster that said those families should be able to vote on BOE members, levies….
 
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My experience with OE has been, the district has 75 kids enrolled in a grade and is therefore required to have 3 teachers for that grade since no teacher can have more than 30 kids. They will allow OE for that grade to fill out the class and get at least some extra money towards the costs of the third classroom
 
I would not want open enrollment in my school district. The way some states operate is that schools who are at full capacity do not have to participate in statewide OE. Easy way to not be a part of it is say that the school is at full capacity. Not fair when a students family pays low property taxes or none at all in government housing and then they get to go to school in school district where the parents are gouged every 3 years to add new money to a high tax bill already as well as renewal of emergency levies in between the new money every 3 years. The state OE is a new favorite of ruling party so expect to be passed in next year or two. Local home rule is crushed by this plan. Reason many people move to an area is great schools and now OE may destroy them.
 
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