Expanded voucher program threatens public schools, Aurora’s superintendent says during State of City

Aurora City School District’s superintendent was one of two featured speakers during Aurora’s State of City event, held Feb. 26 at the Bertram Inn & Conference Center.

Superintendent Mike Roberto started his remarks by noting that he will be retiring at the end of the school year, after 25 years with the city schools, five of them as superintendent.

While “the state of the Aurora City Schools is strong,” Roberto had sharp words to say about the state’s new universal school vouchers program.

Describing the district as a shining district on a hill is no hyperbole, he said, providing multiple examples of the district’s achievements, like a five-star rating on the state’s report card.

Relying on data from math and reading state tests, U.S. News & World Report rated Leighton Elementary School as 264th out of the state’s 3,055 elementary schools and ranked Harmon Middle School at 31st out of Ohio’s 2,451 middle schools. The publication recognized Aurora High School as one of the best high schools in the country: it ranked 20th out of all Ohio high schools and 569th out of all high schools nationwide.

Instead of focusing on the strength of the “district on the hill,” people must instead examine the hill itself, Roberto said.

In 2011, when Roberto became principal of Aurora High School, the district received 27.8% of its revenue from the state of Ohio, he said. This past year, that funding level dropped to 18.1%.

Roberto used the analogy of multi-million dollar mansions falling into canyons after hurricanes and floods wash away the land under them. Support for public education in Ohio is eroding, and even Aurora schools, strong as they now may be, are not immune.

“It doesn’t matter how much money or time was put into that mansion or how solid it was built if the hill it sits upon no longer supports its strong foundation. We have all seen it happen. Eventually, over time, the structure collapses from lack of support,” he said.

In a struggling economy, Roberto said he understands that state lawmakers reduce revenue for school funding.

“What is harder to understand is that, just this last year, vehicle revenue from the state for public schools like Aurora continued to decline. The state spent over $970 million, nearly $1 billion dollars, for new universal school vouchers under the expansion of the Ohio EdChoice Program,” Roberto said.

School vouchers are public funds that help parents pay for education at private schools, with one of the ideas being to give children in low-performing schools a chance to attend a participating private school, Roberto explained.

Ohio has funded the vouchers since the end of the last century, but recently instituted the universal school vouchers to allow any student, no matter their parents’ income and no matter their school’s performance, to use public funds for a voucher.

Voucher amounts vary, but a family of four with an annual income of up to $135,000 qualifies for a full voucher, he said. That covers 70% of Ohio families: the remaining 30% can receive vouchers at a reduced rate.

Aurora schools went from an average of two students taking a voucher in the last three years to this year, 78 students applying for and receiving a universal voucher, he said. That’s an increase of over 2,500%, despite increasing district enrollment.

“As it turns out, the majority of students in Aurora whose families received the voucher were already attending a private school. In fact, across Ohio, the $970 million of public funds used for vouchers went to approximately 10% of the population who, like in Aurora, were previously attending private schools,” Roberto said.

Those public funds would cover almost half the cost of the projected needs of the Fair School Funding Plan, he said, which state lawmakers crafted decades after the Ohio Supreme Court labeled the state’s method of funding public schools as unconstitutional.

Roberto said he agrees that parents should have a choice as to where their children attend school.

“This is not a public school versus private school argument. It is simply about the need to adequately fund a thorough and efficient system of public schools, such as the Aurora City Schools,” he said.

Like those multi-million mansions, even a district like Aurora will eventually be left hanging over a cliff, he said. Academics, athletics, arts and transportation will all be impacted.

Delaying the erosion will require one of two things: a heavier burden on local communities or a change of mindset from the state regarding funding public schools, he said.

To continue providing a strong learning environment for Aurora’s students, incoming Aurora schools Superintendent Paul Milcetich and the entire staff “will need the support of the entire Aurora community,” Roberto concluded.

“My hope and wish for this great city and our shining district on a hill is to continue to collaborate and illuminate the lives of Greenmen far into the future. I’m honored to have led this wonderful school system in such a great community, and we appreciate and need the amazing support you give Greenmen nation,” he said.