Monday, October 25, 1999
CPS levy vital, say backers
Critics: Schools unworthy
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Supporters say Cincinnati Public Schools' campaign to pass a $24 million levy next month is about the survival of public education in Cincinnati.
Without the money, they say, the 45,600-student district will face $20 million in budget cuts and a slowdown of student in recent years.
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HISTORY
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Cincinnati Public Schools ranks 14th among Hamilton County's 22 districts in total school millage. Voters have approved seven of the 10 levies the district has sought in the past decade:
• 1989: A $19.4 million levy renewal and a $2.5 million levy renewal passed, with 59 percent and 62 percent of voters approving them respectively.
• 1990: A $30.6 million tax increase failed, with 57 percent of voters opposing it.
• 1991: A $46 million tax increase passed, with 54 percent of voters supporting it.
• 1993: A $348 million bond issue failed, with 60 percent of voters opposing it.
• 1994: A $19.4 million levy renewal failed with 52 percent of voters opposing it, and a $2.5 million levy renewal passed, with 53 percent of voters approving it.
• 1995: A $19.4 million levy renewal and a $23 million tax increase passed, with 63 percent and 53 percent of voters approving them respectively.
• 1996: A $46 million levy renewal passed, with 71 percent of voters supporting it.
—Source: Cincinnati Public Schools
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Critics say it's about accountability because the district's performance — the state recently ranked it as “academic emergency” — doesn't warrant more money.
Most of the 4.5-mill levy — or $21.3 million — would be a tax increase to offset inflation, fix facilities and restore a $180-per-pupil budget cut. The other $2.7 million would pay for building improvements.
The levy would cost the owner of a $75,000 house $103 a year.
“This is not just a head campaign, where you make your decision just on the facts,” said Brewster Rhoads, a Mount Washington father whose two children attend CPS schools — hired to head the campaign for Issue 11.
“It's a gut campaign. We're asking people for an active rededication to public education.
“A lot of people have given up on public schools. We are not where we want to be yet, but we're moving in the right direction; we're on the right track.”
Administrators last spring planned to ask voters in May for a tax increase of up to $92 million. Public outcry prompted them to delay the request and cut $20 million from their budget to prove they were committed to raising achievement and spending wisely.
Since then, administrators say the district has improved on several fronts:
• Student proficiency scores are rising slightly.
• Suspensions are down 16 percent even though expulsions are up 2 percent in the past year.
• New school board policies have returned a lot of decision-making about spending and curriculum to schools from central administration.
• Two troubled schools closed permanently. Two more closed and reopened with new academic programs and staffs under a new accountability plan that requires redesign for persistently failing schools. Another pair of failing schools will be overhauled this year.
The district is at a “fragile, hopeful crossroads” and needs the levy to keep its momentum going, Superintendent Steven Adamowski told community leaders at a breakfast meeting this month.
Critics aren't convinced.
Tom Brinkman Jr. of Mount Lookout, who is fighting all three tax issues before Hamilton County voters this fall as founder of Citizens Opposed to Additional Taxes and Spending, says the district has plenty of money.
CPS teachers are among the highest paid, both locally and statewide. Starting annual salary for CPS teachers with bachelor's degrees and no experience is $29,299. Top salary with a master's degrees and 27 years of experience is $60,642, according to a Cincinnati Federation of Teachers study.
Salaries are nearly 84 percent of the CPS budget.
State aid is rising. The district will get $28 million more in the next two years than the $111.5 million it received last year.
Washington gave CPS $2.5 million this year to reduce class size in early grades; the money pays for 30 teachers to work in the district's worst schools.
State and federal money provide about 40 percent of CPS' budget.
Mr. Brinkman also accused district administrators of distorting statistics.
For example, administrators trumpeted a decline in annual dropout rates, but more than two-thirds of ninth-graders don't graduate from city schools in four years; they drop out, transfer or are held back.
“They'll say anything to pass the levy. But the fact remains that the state is giving them an F,” he said, referring to the district's “academic emergency” rating on recent state-issued school district report cards. “They're among the worst districts in the state.”
Even without Mr. Brinkman's criticisms, campaign organizers acknowledge a tough task convincing voters to pass the levy.
Less than a fifth of district households have children in public schools. Levy advocates registered more than 4,000 voters this year in hopes they will support them at the polls.
In 1994 and 1995, when school levy renewals were on the ballot, about 51 percent of registered voters voted.
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