It's time for Ohio charter, traditional public schools to follow same standards

In 2015 following a series of scandals and reports, Ohio passed a law that revised how charter schools and their sponsors would be evaluated.

Toledo Public School's Pickett Academy
has been in academic emergency, or failing,
for more than a decade. Don't its 
students deserve something better?

The intent was to provide more accountability of the schools and the organizations (sometimes private for-profit companies) that sponsor them, especially in light of several reports that showed certain charter schools were performing worse than their traditional public school counterparts.

The effect of the legislation is that sponsors are being pushed to close non-achieving charter schools. Ohio charter schools - which are all public schools - educated just under 124,000 student in the 2014-15 school year.

According to information from the Ohio Department of Education, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch, as many as 19 charter schools closed this school year:

"Eleven were dropped by their sponsors for poor performance; the eight others closed voluntarily.

"Last year, 14 charter schools shut their doors. Three closed because of failing grades and six for financial reasons, according to state records. The reasons for the five other closings were unclear."

The new law was having the desired effect of shutting down poorly-performing schools.

According to a summary from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, public charter schools are automatically closed under the following conditions:

• Schools serving no higher than grade three: For the 2013-14 school year, will be automatically closed if for two of the past three years has been in Academic Emergency OR has received an “F” in the Kindergarten through 3rd grade literacy measure.

•  Schools serving any grade four through eight, but no grade above nine: For the 2013-14 school year, will be automatically closed if for two of the past three years was rated Academic Emergency AND showed less than one year of growth in either reading or math OR has received an “F” for the performance index score AND an “F” for the value added score.

•  Schools offering any grade ten through twelve: For the 2013-14 school year, will be automatically closed if for two of the past three years has been in Academic Emergency OR has received an “F” for the performance index score and has not met the annual measurable objectives.

 No one really has any objection to these standards.

In fact, a stakeholder group, which includes representatives from the Ohio Association of Charter School Authorizers, the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education, the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the Thomas B Fordham Foundation, welcomed that state's desire to implement a Sponsor Evaluation System and increase the accountability of charter school sponsors.

They recently released a list of specific recommendation they believe will help ODE "provide accurate and credible compliance ratings for sponsors in Ohio" by the law's October deadline.

So the state is well on its way to ensuring that all charter schools are held to high standards and are actually improving the performance of the students who attend them - and to increasing the accountability and transparency of the organizations that sponsor and authorize the schools.

But charters aren't the only low-performing schools in the state. Traditional public schools also have issues.

The questions now before Ohioans are these:

If we're going to close poorly-performing public charter schools based on their performance, are we going to close poorly-performing traditional public schools based on the same criteria?

If we're going to force sponsors to be accountable for the schools they authorize, are we going to hold public boards of education to the same standard of accountability for the schools they run?

Why are we establishing two sets of criteria for public schools based solely on their designation as either a charter or traditional school?

If we really want to ensure that all children have access to a quality education that fits their individual needs, shouldn't we hold all schools to the reasonable standards set for charters, especially considering the fact that many of the children most impacted by poorly-performing schools are stuck in them because of their zip code?

Look at Pickett Elementary School in the Toledo Public School District. If it were a charter school, it'd be closed by now.

Pickett's grades for the 2012-13 school year were a D in the Performance Index (overall results of students on state tests) and an F in Indicators Met (how many students measured proficient in reading and math for state tests).

For the 2013-14 school year, the school again scored a D on the Performance Index and an F on Indicators Met. Additionally, it scored Fs in two new categories:  Gap Closing - is every student succeeding regardless of income, race, ethnicity or disability; and K-3 Literacy - are more students learning to read in kindergarten through third grade.

The 2014-15 report card for the school was even worse:  An F on the Performance Index, an F on the Indicators Met, an F on Gap Closing, an F on K-3 Literacy and an F in the new category of Progress, which measures how much the student learns in a year (did they get a year's worth of growth).

Prior to 2012-13, schools had a different rating system.  Pickett has received the lowest designation of Academic Emergency since the 2003-04 school year.  In 2002-03, they were at Academic Watch. The most number of Indicators Met was two in 2005-06 and in no year did they attain the status of Adequate Yearly Progress.

Report cards prior to 2002-03 are not available on the state's website.

So why are 19 charter schools closing this year but Pickett, which has been failing for over a decade, is still "trying" to educate students?

Have any traditional schools in Ohio closed due to low-performance as is required of the charter schools?

Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for the Fordham Institute, says answering that question is tricky.

"The criteria isn't the same," Churchill explained. "It's hard to track (closures) back to performance. You'll see districts closing schools due to loss of enrollment or part of an overall financial plan. While low-performance ranking might be a factor in those policy decisions, it's not the primary one."

Churchill called the situation "disappointing."

"You have schools in the district sector that fail year after year and that's a problem," he said. "But Fordham did a study that showed in both districts and charters, when low-performing schools close the kids usually end up at better-performing schools and they actually do better."

Churchill said no one really wants to see a school all boarded up. "But if we're going to make student-centered decisions, there is evidence that (closing schools) helps kids in the long run," he added.

That study looked at school closures between 2006 and 2012 in the top eight urban areas in the state.

The study reveals that children displaced by closure make significant academic gains on state math and reading exams after their school closes. 

Three years after closure, the research found that displaced students overall made the following cumulative gains:

• Students who had attended a closed district school gained forty-nine additional days of learning in reading and thirty-four additional days in math and;

• Students who had attended a closed charter school gained forty-six additional days in math.

Further, the study reveals that students who attended a higher-quality school after closure made even greater progress. Three years after closure, displaced students who transferred to a higher-quality school made the following cumulative gains:

• Students who had attended a closed district school gained sixty-nine additional days of learning in reading and sixty-three additional days in math and;

• Students who had attended a closed charter school gained fifty-eight additional days of learning in reading and eighty-eight additional days in math.

So if kids are better off after a low-performing school is closed, why isn't Ohio applying the same criteria to traditional public schools as it does to charters?

According to ODE, 50 Ohio schools received an F on their actual 2014 Performance Index and 499 received a D. In the Toledo Public School District, there were no As, five Bs, 17 Cs and 27 Ds, including Pickett.

Unfortunately, the data shows that too many of the traditional schools get failing grades and, as Churchill said, "you can't just close all low-performing district schools because a child needs to have some school to attend."

Following multiple news reports in 2015 on everything from mismanagement of public funds at charter schools to bribery convictions for three charter school officials, Steven Dyer wrote at Progressive.org:

Let's do what we can to fix this now. Forget politics. This is about saving kids. And we've got tens of thousands who need to be rescued from this system that has -- in the vast majority of cases -- lost its way amid profits and power.

While some Ohio charter critics may rejoice at this awful spate of stories for the sector, I ache for the kids and parents who this is hurting. They deserve better. And so do the taxpayers who are seeing nearly $1 billion of their state money and hundreds of millions of their local tax money go to pay for and subsidize these operations.

It's a tragedy. An entire generation of kids has now gone through this utterly broken system.  

I shudder to think of the consequences.

Multiple generations of kids have gone through failing and low-performing traditional district schools. It's a tragedy and everyone should shudder to think of the consequences.

Don't the nearly 1.75 million kids in traditional public schools deserve better as well?

If Pickett were a charter school, it'd be closed by now

"Whenever people talk glibly of a need to achieve educational "excellence," I think of what an improvement it would be if our public schools could just achieve mediocrity."  ~  Thomas Sowell

Toledo Public School's Pickett Academy has been in
academic emergency or failing for more than a decade.

I recently came across this quote and thought it was perfect to explain what is going on at Pickett Academy, formerly known as Pickett Elementary, in Toledo, Ohio.

But it's also a good quote to explain what's going on in Ohio in general as the legislature considers new rules for charter schools.

Let's start with Pickett.

Pickett used to be kindergarten through sixth grade, but was recently changed, as part of an overall restructuring of the Toledo Public Schools. It now goes to eighth grade.

For more than 12 years, Pickett has been failing. It was in academic emergency under the old state grading system and has had a failing grade since the new school report cards have been issued.

In 2011-12, the school met none of the performance indicators and did not meet the "adequate yearly progress" indicator.

In 2012-13, under the new letter grades, the school received a D on its Performance Index (which measures the test results of every student) and an F on Indicators Met (which tells how many students passed the state tests at a minimum level).

In order to "meet" an indicator, at least 75% of students must pass the test.

The school met zero - none - of the 14 indicators during the 2012-13 school year.

It also scored an F for Gap Closing, which tells if every student is succeeding regardless of income, race, culture or disability. The state set an Annual Measurable Objective of 83.4% in math and 78.5% in reading. Pickett's overall score in reading was 53.3% and was 36.4% in math.

So what happened in the 2013-14 school year?  More of the same.

Another D on the Performance Index. Another F on Indicators Met with, again, none of the 14 indicators achieved. And another F in Gap Closing.

You would think, with scores and grades like these over more than a decade, that students who would attend Pickett would be taking advantage of the Ohio EdChoice Scholarship.

The EdChoice Scholarships give options to kids who are, or would be attending, an underperforming school.  Parents can use the scholarship to send their child to participating private schools.

So how many students who would have been stuck in this particular failing school have opted for a better education?

That's a good question. According to a spokesman at the Ohio Department of Education, data on the number of EdChoice Scholarships issued by underperforming school is available. As soon as they email the information, it will be included in this blog post.

Regardless of the number of students leaving, it is certain that not all students at Pickett are doing poorly, just that a vast majority of them are.

Which brings us back to the quote - and the Ohio General Assembly.

There are a lot of people up in arms about the performance of charter schools - which are also public schools - especially after a pretty negative report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Fordham was the first non-profit agency to be approved by the Ohio Department of Education as a sponsor of community schools. Fordham's report, released in December, said that "too often Ohio's charters have produced mediocre results" and that, on average, charter school students "make less academic progress than their district counterparts."

Fordham made several recommendations for improvement and some are included in House Bill 2 and as part of Gov. John Kasich's budget recommendations.

Certainly, poorly performing schools should not be allowed to continue to crank out poorly educated students. And an examination of public charter schools is not only valid, but necessary.  Parents need this information - and information on traditional public schools - so they can make good decisions for their children and find a school that best fits them.

But among all the angst and hand-wringing over charter schools that don't do well after three years, a lot of politicians, teachers unions, special interest groups and lobbyists are ignoring schools like Pickett that have been failing students for more than a decade.

In fact, if Pickett had been held to the same standard as existing charter schools, it would have closed quite some time ago.

For instance, in the 2013-14 school year, charter schools serving up to third grade would automatically be closed if, for two of the last three years, the school had been in Academic Emergency. While Pickett now serves up to eighth grade, it's been in Academic Emergency for over a decade.

The problem isn't that so many kids are stuck in failing schools without options, or that charter schools aren't doing as well as other public schools, or that parents cannot afford a private school education - though all these are, indeed, problems parents and communities face.

The bigger problem is that the various school options are not held to similar, much less the same, standards.

According to a December 2011 report from the Center for Education Reform, between 1997 and 2011, nearly 100 (99 to be exact) charters were closed for failing to meet their obligations. A January 12 Columbus Dispatch article noted that closings are now over 150.

There are 233 schools on the current List of Designated Public Schools, the schools that are underperforming and have been failing for at least two of the last three years.  Students who attend, or would be slated to attend, those schools are the ones eligible for EdChoice Scholarships.

Interestingly, the List has a "Closing" column, which identifies schools that are in the process of being closed.

Guess how many of those 233 failing schools are closing.

None.

THAT is the problem. Traditional public schools which are failing students are allowed to remain open while the other public education option - charter schools - must close when they fail.

Now, if the traditional public schools weren't failing overall, or just failing to meet the needs of specific students, there wouldn't been a "need" for other options, though there would still exist a "want."

No school can be all things for all students, which is why school choice is so important to parents and students.

But if we're not going to open the doors so wide that ALL students can have a choice, then the least we can do is ensure that traditional public schools are treated the same as charter public schools and close down the ones that are continually failing to meet even the most basic of standards - like Pickett.

After all - it's "for the children."

New TPS president's top priority: new tax levy - not education nor preformance audit

As part of her comments after being elected president of the Toledo Public School Board, Brenda Hill said "you reach a point where you can’t ask for more.”

Was she talking about taxpayers and those who foot the bill for the school system? Was she using this as an introduction to ways the school district could operate more efficiently and live within its means, especially in light of their decision to do a comprehensive performance audit?

Heavens no!

Hill, a former teacher in the TPS system, was talking about teachers.

In a Jan. 4th Blade article (basically repeated on Jan. 7th with a different headline and opening), Hill says her top priority is a passing new school levy this year because:

"...she pointed out that the district has already asked for teachers to give up pay, and said that "you reach a point where you can't ask for more."

When asked if the district had reached that point, she said she didn't know, but said that teacher pay does impact employee morale, and cuts to pay could cause staff to leave the district.

"We can't afford to lose anymore staff," Ms. Hill said."

She also said:

"...she doesn't expect the district to make major changes to operations this year to entice voter support."

Nope - no need to change what we're doing to earn voter support.

It wasn't that property owners don't want to pay more, or that they think they're already paying enough.

In her view, the problem with the failure of the last four levy requests isn't because of bad performance by the schools, nor is it because of questionable financials - like having a $11.22 million carryover while demanding you need more money.

No, according to Hill, it's because they ran a poor campaign with not enough yard signs.

Seriously!

An example of the poor campaign, Ms. Hill said, was what she believes was a dearth of yard signs supporting the levy.

Never mind that the majority of yard signs supporting the levy were illegally on school property or posted - again illegally - in the public right-of-way. Did Hill ever stop to think that perhaps the reason there weren't 'enough' yard signs were because no one wanted to support the levy?

Did she even remotely consider that perhaps it was taxpayers who had reached the point where they couldn't be asked for more?

I don't know what's scarier: that she was elected by the other board members to be president or that, with such failed reasoning, she was actually teaching our kids!

And what about that performance audit? You remember: the comprehensive evaluation of everything the district is doing and how it might save money and perform more effectively and efficiently?

Hill was among the unanimous supporters of entering into a contract with Evergreen Solutions to do a performance audit when the TPS board voted on Dec. 18th.

Did she forget her vote? Or is she already convinced that the audit will sit on a shelf and none of the recommendations will be implemented?

Shouldn't a 'top priority' of a school board president be to see the audit to completion and then oversee implementation of the recommendations with the expectation of saving money so they don't *need* a new levy???

Apparently not.

Of course, this doesn't even touch on the educational aspects of TPS - you know, the entire reason we have a school board in the first place?!?

Well, at least she included "improving graduation rates" as part of her priorities, along with "improving employee morale."

Yeah - she's concerned about improving the morale of the employees by taxing property owners more. And here I thought money didn't buy happiness. What a fool I must be.

Then there is the superintendent issue. Jerome Pecko's contract is up in June. The board will also have to decide whether to extend it or look for a new superintendent.

But getting more money from already tapped-out taxpayers is the priority of the new TPS president.

So much for my cautious optimism.

TPS's Pickett Elementary: I'm outraged and you should be too

For years, I've been angry about Pickett Elementary being in academic emergency. Now I'm OUTRAGED and I want to know - why aren't YOU!?!

First, let's get some facts out of the way. I'm a proud graduate of Woodward High School, Point Place Junior High (no longer in existence) and Edgewater Elementary.

I had terrific teachers, caring and competent administrators and I believe I received a good education. It wasn't the best in the world, as I found when I started college and realized that many of my classmates were ahead in their learning, but it was good and it taught me not just facts and figures, but "how" to learn. And that has served me well throughout my life so far.

So this is not a criticism of public schools, but of a public school system that so completely and totally fails in its mission to educate kids.

Back to Pickett...

Here is a link to their 2010-2011 school report card, the most recent available at the Ohio Department of Education website.

It shows some very scary statistics, especially when you consider we're talking about children.

For instance, the 4th and 5th grade scores actually decreased in both reading and math compared to the 2009-10 school year.

And this is despite paying Susan Koester, principal, $87,893.00 - the 11th highest paid employee in the entire school district!

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2001, there were supposed to be consequences when schools did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards, as Wikipedia explains:

* Schools that miss AYP for a second consecutive year are publicly labeled as being "in need of improvement" and are required to develop a two-year improvement plan for the subject that the school is not teaching well. Students are given the option to transfer to a better school within the school district, if any exists.
* Missing AYP in the third year forces the school to offer free tutoring and other supplemental education services to struggling students.
* If a school misses its AYP target for a fourth consecutive year, the school is labelled as requiring "corrective action," which might involve wholesale replacement of staff, introduction of a new curriculum, or extending the amount of time students spend in class.
* A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly.

Koester was part of the replacement of the staff required under NCLB, rather than the other options of reopening as a charter school, contracting with someone else to run the school, or allowing the state to take over.

But note that this wholesale change should have happened after four years of failing to meet AYP.

The Toledo Public School Board waiting until eight years had passed before they made this change!

Eight years!

So Koester took over in the 2008-09 school year and while the school did meet the AYP 'participation' indicators, they did not meet their 'proficiency' indicators.

Basically, they got credit for showing up.

Here's what she had to say just before she started in her position as principal:

"I'm tired of people saying it can't be done," said Susan Koester, Pickett's new principal, who sought the job. "Wherever they are when they come here, we're going to get them where they need to be."

Apparently not.

In most of the tested categories, reading and math for third, fourth and fifth grades, only 1/3 of the students are testing proficient.

One-third!

In the 2010-11 tests, 59.6% of third graders managed to score proficient in math. That's great for the individual student, but that's still a failing grade overall. At least, it was when I was in school where a 60% was definitely an F.

The preliminary data for the 2011-12 is no better.

It shows that Picket AGAIN! failed to meet AYP and met zero of the performance indicators.

That's right: zero, zilch, nada!

This is not just unbelievable - it's a tragedy and a disgrace!

Are you outraged yet???

Somewhere along the way, the name of the school was changed to Pickett Academy and Koester is out and Martha Jude is in. The school has also been included in the new United Way Community Hub initiative.

The hub concept bring together multiple types of services - not just for kids - at the schools, including such things as

* Activities before and after school
* Tutoring and mentoring
* Medical, dental, and mental health services
* College-prep, GED, and adult education
* Free tax preparation
* Budgeting and saving classes
* Employment and housing resources

depending on the needs and desires of the community.

But is this enough to help the current students achieve success?

And what about the last 12 years of kids they've sent on to Scott High School, which only met the performance indicators in four of 10 tested areas (reading and writing in the 10th and 11th grade Ohio Graduation Test) in the 2010-11 school year.

For 2011-12, Jesup W. Scott High School met zero performance indicators and failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress.

It's no wonder when the high school is getting kids from Pickett!

To it's credit, the Toledo Federation of Teachers had offered to try a new type of education plan at Pickett. It would have been a teacher-led school, but the board had to reject it because there wouldn't have been a principal in the school structure and that would have violated the contract TPS has with the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel, the union representing principals. (And why do the principals even need a union?!?)

I have no idea if it would have worked or not, but it seems like a pretty lame excuse to let kids continue to fail. (Tell me again how politicians and unions are all about helping the kids and not themselves?)

This is not the fault of the kids. And it's probably not entirely the fault of the teachers and parents, though I'm sure there is some blame for them to share.

This is the fault of the system, the administration, the unions, and the elected school board members, all five of whom are Democrats.

It's also the fault of people like our Toledo City Council and the editorial board at The Blade who continually push school levies, including the new 4.9 mill, 10-year levy that is on the November ballot, in spite of the gross and sickening failure of Pickett to actually provide an education to an entire generation of kids.

And yes, the community bears some blame as well for allowing this to continue.

Well, you have a chance on November 6th to make a difference. Tell TPS 'NO' on their levy request. Tell them you want to see significant improvement at Pickett and all the other schools before they get any more money.

In this case, it really is 'for the children.'

TPS facts and figures you need to know

In the 2006-07 school year, the Toledo Public School system spent $11,320 per pupil. In the 2010-11 school year, their spending had increased to $13,859 per pupil.

Interestingly, their income per pupil in 2006-07 was $12,096. Clearly enough to cover what they were spending.

However, by 2010-11, their revenue per pupil was only $12,551, a 4% increase over the 2006-07 school year but definitely more than what they were spending - $1,308 or roughly 10% more.

Now, it's true that a lot of factors influence how much a school system has to spend - and some of the spending is a result of mandates that a district has no control over.

But when a district is spending more than it's taking in, the solution is NOT to just tell the public they need more money. They first have to reduce their spending so that it's in line with their income. And, since they're a school system and their first priority is educating the children, they should start with reduction of administrative salaries and overhead.

Identifying where spending can be cut - or where savings might be found - must be done by an outside, objective entity. This is why I've pushed for a performance audit and I'm glad the TPS board is moving in that direction.

I just don't expect the administration to act contrary to their own best interests and recommend reductions in their salaries, even though that would be in the best interest of the students - and the taxpayers.

And, so far, I'm not encouraged by what I'm hearing from some school board members who think TPS deserves a cushion - more money than they actually need now - simply because they expect their spending to continually rise and they don't want to have to 'keep cutting.'

I also don't think a school system that has such a terrible report card deserves to be rewarded with additional funds. They met just five of the 26 indicators for the 2010-11 school year. When I went to Woodward High School, that was a 19% - definitely a failing grade, even on a curve.

TPS did not meet the state standard in any category in the third- through eighth-grade achievement tests. In fact, in many instances, the scores have decreased from the 2008-09 test year.

They're just barely making the state standard in reading and writing for the Ohio Graduation Test given to 11th graders. They don't reach the state standard in math, science or social studies.

When it comes to Adequate Yearly Progress, they're not meeting proficiency in reading or math, though they meet their participation requirement. Yippee! - kids are participating, but they're not gaining proficiency, so what difference does it make if they're just 'present'?

And then there is Pickett Elementary - a school that has been in academic emergency for 12 years. Let me repeat that - 12 years! They met zero - zilch - nada - of the 26 indicators.

Their fifth graders, since the 2008-09 school years, have actually decreased their scores in reading, math and science. And this is in spite of the fact that 97% of the classes are taught by properly certified teachers, nearly half of them with master's degrees.

Administrative personnel in the district earn between $50,673 and $75,490 depending on which of the 11 classes and four levels they fall in. Yes, there are 11 classes of administrative personnel and each class has four different levels of potential pay.

Teachers have 31 steps. Each step has six levels based upon degrees and time. The salaries range from $34,960 to $70,055.

According to an NPR StateImpact Ohio study, the average teacher salary at TPS in 2005 was $49,862 per year. By 2010, it was $55,780.

According to City Data, the median household income in 2000 was $32,546. By 2009, it had dropped slightly to $32,325.

Note household income - not individual income - and that also includes all of the city of Toledo, not just the TPS district.

The Census Bureau reports that the median household income from 2006 - 2010 was $34,260.

There's a lot to be said for paying certain professions more than others, but it's also fair to ask if average teacher salaries that are $23,455 more than the median household are appropriate - or affordable. Can Toledoans, the majority of whom are poor and middle class, continue to afford to pay teachers 72% more than they, themselves, make?

The Census also shows an 8.4% decrease in population - from 313,619 in 2000 to 287,208 in 2010, a loss of 26,411 people. So even less people are paying into the system, and with spending continuing to increase, it means more of a burden on those left.

And let's not forget that they just 'found' and 'unexpected' $8.2 million in additional carryover, resulting in a surplus of $11.22 million going into the 2012-13 school year.

This is a sampling of the facts and figures you need to know as you considering your vote on a 10-year additional 4.9 mill levy. This will be an addition to the 64.39 mills they already collect.

Remember 1 mill on a house valued at $100,000 is about $30.60, so the 64.39 mills to TPS equals more than $1,970 - and they want another $150!

How much do TPS employees make?

Press Release from Buckeye Institute:

2010 K-12 Teacher Salary and Estimated Pension Data added to Searchable Database along with Search Counter

COLUMBUS - The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions today released on its website the 2010 K-12 salary and estimated pension data for all Ohio public school teachers. Unlike the data collected for previous years, the 2010 data includes salary and pension information for many superintendents, principals, and other administrative staff members. The pension data includes each teacher's salary based on a 2,080-hour year (40 hour work-week, 52 week year) so users can properly evaluate teacher pay, as most teachers are contractually limited to working 1,350 hours per year.

In 2010, approximately 1,800 school employees earned over $100,000 per year. Due to increasing staffing costs, Ohio's 613 public school districts are expected to face a $7.6 billion funding deficit by 2015, with personnel expenses consuming 96 percent of tax revenues.

In the last election, citizens used the Teacher Salary Database to hold their school districts accountable for spending choices, citing that average teacher salaries had grown at rates that, in many cases, far outpaced inflation.

In addition to the new data, the website now contains a search counter which records the number of searches performed in the eight database tools (State Salary, Federal Salary, Higher Ed Salary, Teacher Salary, Local Salary, School Data, County Data, and State Lobbyists). Since the website's launch on April 30, 2010, visitors from 473 Ohio cities, the 49 other states, and 119 foreign countries have spent over 20,000 hours conducting almost 1.5 million data searches.

Buckeye Institute President Matt A. Mayer stated: "With so many school districts under financial duress, it is now even more important than ever that taxpayers know how school districts are spending their money. Instead of cutting staff positions, sports, bussing, and other programs, most school districts could balance their budgets without raising taxes through cutting staff compensation packages by a small percentage."

The Teacher Salary data tool is available at www.buckeyeinstitute.org.

###

Click HERE to go directly to the teacher salary search page. If you want a particular school system, just fill in that box, the year and how you'd like the data sorted (by last name or salary). The database also lists the days worked.

Here are top five wage earners in the Toledo Public School system:

Foley, John, toledo city, $165,050.92, 260 hours worked
Romano, Daniel M Iii, toledo city, $133,570.00, 260 hours worked
Kilbride, Janice I, toledo city, $122,557.00, 260 hours worked
Gilliland, Earl John Jr, toledo city, $118,676.00, 260 hours worked
Rivera, Lonny J, toledo city, $110,974.00, 260 hours worked

Interestingly, in the top 20 wage earners (#17) is Susan Koester, who earned $83,493.00 as the principal at Pickett Elementary School, though she is no longer the principal there. According to the Ohio Department of Education Report Card for the 2009-10 school year, Pickett met only 1 of 8 state indicators and did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress. The school is also significantly below other schools in the district in terms of their achievement. And, if I remember correctly, Pickett has been in 'academic emergency' for about 10 years now.

I'm sure you'll find things of interest in this searchable database.