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Monday, May 16, 2011
Ohio 46th in classroom spending
Centerville is one of the area’s largest school districts, but it spends the smallest share of education funding on administration, according to a Dayton Daily News examination of 31 districts in Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Warren, Preble and Clark counties.
Another big suburban district — Northmont — ranked first for the share of money going toward classroom instruction, while Dayton Public was at the other end of the spectrum, ranking lowest for the percentage of money being funneled into the classroom. Dayton spends more per-pupil overall than any other district.
“We haven’t hired more administrators so we could put money into the classroom,” Centerville City Schools Superintendent Tom Henderson said. “That’s always been our focus.”
Squeezing the most out of the education dollar is the goal of every district as tight money and public pressure focus more attention on how tax money is being spent.
A Daily News ranking of data from the U.S. Department of Education found Ohio is 12th for the share of money that goes toward administration, and 46th for the percentage directed toward classroom instruction.
But a district-by-district comparison of school spending shows low administration costs — and even high classroom spending — don’t necessarily translate to better academic performance.
Of the 10 districts that put the most into instruction, half have “effective” or “continuous improvement” ratings on the state report card. Effective and continuous improvement are behind “excellent with distinction” and “excellent” in the state’s six-rung grade system.
“Just because a district spends less on administration doesn’t mean they are being efficient in the way they spend their money,” said Jim Hull, a senior policy analyst for the National School Boards Association, an advocate for school boards across the nation.
Small rural and large urban districts with high poverty tend to have a lot of overhead while suburban districts can keep administrative costs low through “economies of scale,” he said. And, Hull pointed out, administrators also have different roles and do different things depending on the district.
Dayton Public Schools Treasurer Stan Lucas said the numbers don’t tell the whole story. His district devotes 12.5 percent of its budget to administration and 47 percent toward classroom instruction, according to the data from the Ohio Department of Education. The remainder goes toward various operational expenditures such as transportation.
“I do not believe in any way, shape or form we are top-heavy in terms of administrative staff because I know my staff works 50 to 60 hours a week and they are not alone,” he said.
Educators said it’s unfair to compare school districts because no two districts are alike. Even big-city districts with similar student populations have differences that often strain comparisons. When compared to the state’s other large urban districts, Dayton devoted the second-highest percentage toward administration and was lowest in the share of money going into the classroom.
But Lucas said some districts may pay bigger teacher salaries, which would be reflected in the totals for classroom instruction. For example, state data shows the average teacher salary in Cleveland was $64,087 in fiscal year 2009, compared to $51,738 in Dayton.
All told, Dayton spends an average of $14,257 per pupil, the highest in the region.
“It isn’t that we have a Cadillac here and it isn’t that they’re that frugal,” Lucas said. “They don’t do all the stuff we do. In all honesty, we’re trying to break the cycle of poverty through education.”
Rankings a mixed bag
Two area districts with “excellent” academic rankings appeared at the top — and bottom — of the rankings for share of administrative costs.
Centerville — the 23rd biggest district in the state — puts 7.8 percent of its budget toward administration, the lowest in the region. Cedar Cliff, a tiny district of about 600 students in Greene County, spends 17.3 percent — the highest in the Miami Valley.
“It just seems out of whack somehow,” said Cedar Cliff Superintendent David Baits, who questioned how the state collects and reports the data. “We tend to be staff lean. We wear many hats as in a small school as administrators.”
To prove it, Baits said, he can show his commercial driver’s license, which he got so he could help out driving a school bus.
Gov. John Kasich has made it a priority to do something about the low marks Ohio gets for classroom spending. In his State of the State address, the governor said, “More dollars in the classroom instead of bureaucracy will improve our schools.”
Kasich’s aide Rob Nichols also said that as part of the school report cards, the governor wants the state to rank districts based on the share of administrative and instructional spending. Some districts have taken definitive steps toward reducing administrative costs. Centerville, for example, has no assistant principals in its elementary or middle schools.
At Northmont, business manager Bob McClintock pointed to the district’s decentralized administrative process as one of the reasons his district can devote 63.7 percent of its budget toward instruction, highest of the 31 districts studied.
In the district of about 5,400 students, the principals come up with the budgets for their schools.
“It eliminates the need for having a lot of extra people running around helping them make decisions,” said McClintock, who previously worked for a company that made products for General Motors. “I really saw the value of a team working to eliminate bureaucracy,” he said.
Needed oversight
The push for cutting administration in favor of instruction spending is growing nationwide, said Hull, who authored the National School Boards Association’s “Cutting to the Bone” report. His report found districts accelerated the elimination of administrative posts during the recession in favor of keeping teaching jobs.
“With the economic downturn, almost every district in the country has slashed administrative staff even beyond any excess that was out there,” Hull said. “Districts have gone out of their way to avoid laying off teachers and instructional support staff.”
Yet, Hull fears the loss of too many oversight posts could have a detrimental impact on learning. Without proper leadership, he said, even high achieving districts could flounder. “It may very well trickle down to the classroom,” he said. “Administrators get a bad rap that they are just bureaucrats and don’t have an impact on achievement.”
Huber Heights City Schools Superintendent William Kirby has similar fears after voters rejected his district’s request for a 1.5 percent earned income tax by one of the largest margins in recent history. As school leaders prepare to make more cuts, they have to be careful not to eliminate people who provide mandated oversight of state and federal programs, he said. “I think it could have negative repercussions on our district because we are having to cut people who carry out the mandates that are thrust upon us,” Kirby said. “I’m concerned about the future, with the lack of funding, impacting our classrooms and not being about to meet the needs of the classroom.”
‘It could be very damaging’
In the Trotwood-Madison school district, voters on May 3 rejected a request for new operating revenue for the fifth straight time.
Donna Kup, who runs Trotwood’s Broadway Café with her husband, believes the levy failed because most people didn’t know how the district would spend the $1.6 million the levy would have raised.
“I think the people would love to know how the district spends the money,” she said. In the Daily News rankings, Trotwood-Madison was fourth highest for the percentage spent on administration, and fourth lowest for what it puts into the classroom .
Superintendent Rexann Wagner is concerned the rankings could be viewed negatively . “It could be very damaging to us if the perception is that we’re administratively heavy because we are not,” she said.
Since the state data on spending was released as part of the school report card in August, Trotwood-Madison officials have been combing through the data to see how each job and expenditure should be coded — even deciding whether the disinfectant used to wash down desks should be classified as a classroom expense instead of maintenance. Some districts, she said, pay a lot of attention to how expenses are coded.
“I think our data will look very different on this year’s report card,” she said.
Centerville’s Henderson said state’s system for ranking districts based on spending is “probably the best way from a state perspective you can quantify how districts are doing.” But, he added, it’s just one component.
“I sometimes worry that school districts can be judged by one piece of information.”
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