CFT Responds to Enquirer Editorial

Without ever having a dialog with the teachers of Cincinnati Public Schools, the Enquirer based its opposition to the March School Levy on teacher pay and district performance.  The editorial staff asserted that high teacher salaries created the financial crisis of the district, making this an “unwinnable battle to control its budget.”  The reality of the situation is that an unconstitutional and unfair state funding system drives the financial crisis of every public school system in the state of Ohio, but especially urban districts like CPS.  This funding system denies inflationary increases in revenues and forces every Ohio school district to beg for support from property owners every four years or face insolvency—making every school district appear that it cannot manage its money. Cincinnati Public Schools stretched our funding formula twice as far as other districts by reducing teachers, staff, and services to the point it can no longer do this without out permanent damage to the educational programs serving students.

Since 2004 nearly 1000 teaching positions (30% of all teachers) and 300 staff positions disappeared from our schools while only 15% of the students in the district moved to school district funded charter and voucher schools.  The loss of these students will cost Cincinnati Public Schools and the tax-payers approximately $73 million next year in the form of tuition, transportation and other services; yet their academic performance will be no better and in most all cases far worse than if they stayed in CPS schools.  The Enquirer demands performance from the public schools but turns a blind eye to the failures of the charter and voucher alternatives.  The editorial board’s demand and concern for achievement and school performance rings rather hollow when viewed in this light.

Since the Enquirer attacked teacher pay as the real source of the district’s financial problems it is important to explore the issue. Urban education is among the most difficult and stressful of careers in our country.  People who choose to teach here do so because of a commitment to children coming from a desire to make a difference in this world.  Urban educators are a special ....