The Observation Deck

It's hard to believe that Lakewood will get more than the $16,000,000 per year it gets now. It's also hard to believe that Avon Lake will get less than the $2,000,000 per year it gets now.

It's possible that the impossible will happen but my guess is that Lakewood will get less.

On the other hand, Lakewood has many who speak English as a second language, many students with special needs and many students from nontraditional back grounds. There is a rumor that the Governor intends to increase funding for those groups which would mean Lakewood would get more. I find that unlikely but I guess it's possible.

The bottom line is that however "scientifically" based the funding formula is the formula will be designed to benefit one group at the expense of another and the politicians involved will seek to benefit their own constituencies.

Spreadsheets are a great invention. They make it easy to put in the answer and compute backwords to engineer the formula's needed to get the answer you want. Even though the process takes only a few minutes the people doing the computing will take a year or so to release the answer to give the appearance of scientific authenticity.

Lakewood Schools spend about $260,000 per classroom. Is it time to consider converting the schools to a School Board run charter system to make better use of those dollars?

Today's the day. Will it be Christmas or April Fools?

I'm pleasantly surprised:

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf ... lan_d.html

Lakewood will actually get an increase in funding. Maybe 10% more.

Of course that is a double edged sword. Cuts in State funding at City Hall led to a 15% cut in spending and a big reduction in the work force with no noticeable affect on City services.

Will the Lakewood School Board use the new funding to:

Offer more raises?
Shorter work days?
Retirement bonuses?
$1 million in annual bonsus based on bogus performance reviews?
More generous health insurance?

I ask because that is how additional money was used in the past. One of my pet peeves on the reporting of school funding is that levy's are always reported as "being needed to maintain current services". Of course you don't need the extra money to maintain current services. The money is used for: see the above list.

It would be better to just change the state constitution

so that the old way of funding is no longer unconstitutional.

ryan costa wrote:It would be better to just change the state constitution

so that the old way of funding is no longer unconstitutional.

When people talk about school funding reform they generally mean that they want someone else to pay for their schools.

It's possible that Lakewood will get a lot more money under the new formula. If past history is any guide that means bigger raises, more generous health insurance, early retirement bonuses and more. When the money is gone the school board will announce that they need more money to "maintain current services".

Of course it's possible that the money will be used for improving education and lowering the tax burden but I pretty sure I'll grow wings and fly before that happens.

they will also tear down decent buildings.

and spend a lot of money building newer, inferior buildings.

Modern architecture is inferior. For example, the Medical Mart. and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. and the Peter Lewis building at CWRU. and any school building made in the last 20 years.