Strickland's education plan funds wealthy districts over poor

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

Schools officials across the state, particularly those among the poorest districts in Ohio, are trying to get a grip on why they would receive little or no new money in the next two years, while a number of wealthier suburban districts would get healthy funding increases.

The three poorest districts in Ohio, and 24 of the bottom 50 based on property value per pupil, would suffer state-funding cuts over the next two years. None would receive the maximum increase allowed: 15 percent the first year and 16 percent the second.

Meanwhile, atop the property-wealth spectrum, 22 of the top 50 districts would get more money -- and of those, 12 would receive the maximum increase.

"When you're cutting Trimble Local, one of the poorest districts in the state, by 2 percent, while giving Upper Arlington a 15 percent increase, how is that decreasing school inequity?" said Sen. John A. Carey Jr. of Wellston, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He represents a number of poor Appalachian districts.
 

(Source: The Columbus Dispatch, 02/08/09)