Effective and efficient
schools for Ohio
Now, more than ever, Ohio must be smart about how it invests in education. The state must find ways to give its 1.8 million students a world-class education that will allow them and the state to thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy – while at the same time making the best use of limited resources in the context of an ongoing economic downturn.
The challenge is formidable. Ohio faces a projected $8 billion budget shortfall in fiscal years 2012 and 2013, and that shortfall is compounded by an unemployment rate that has hovered near 10 percent and a population that is graying, which is fast escalating Ohio’s Medicaid burden.
Finding ways to do more with less
Ohio Smart Schools is a collaborative, nonpartisan initiative of Ohio Education Matters that has been seeking ideas and approaches that will allow the state to achieve innovative education reform against a budgetary picture that likely will get worse before it gets better.
As the state budgeting process gets into full swing, we are releasing findings from extensive research that can help state leadership in Ohio to decide how Ohio can mostly wisely continue its investment in education.
Governor Kasich’s new FY2013 budget proposal continues to encourage schools and local governments to do more with less
Budget package mirrors Ohio Education Matters proposals on efficiency
CINCINNATI– (March 15, 2012) – Ohio Governor John Kasich’s new FY2013 mid-year budget package continues to encourage school districts to do more with less – a call made more than a year ago by Ohio Education Matters.
In a statement released today, Ohio Education Matters said the budget proposal released Wednesday moves forward proposals to encourage more digital and blending learning in the classroom and to provide tools for schools and districts to share services in order to improve services and reduce costs.
“In our Ohio Smart Schools initiative, we encouraged the state to take action a year ago to help schools and districts continue academic improvements while reducing costs,” said Andrew Benson, Executive Director of Ohio Education Matters, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks in Cincinnati. “We are pleased that the governor in this budget continues to provide guidance and tools to districts to help them improve academic achievement but do so at a lower cost.”
Last year, Ohio Education Matters called for the state to provide incentives and support for schools and districts to share services in order to maintain services but do so at a lower cost. That recommendation came in the Ohio Smart Schools report, Towards a New Model of Educational Governance for Ohio: Regional Cooperation to Align Education Services. That report said the state should provide more regional support to schools and districts through comprehensive Regional Service Agencies that would provide economies of scale and opportunities to share services at lower costs.
Click here to download the full press release.
Ohio shared service initiative could save public education more than $1 billion, regional educators are told
Ohio Smart Schools benchmarking findings presented to OESCA fall conference
COLUMBUS (September 13, 2011) – The State of Ohio’s plan to provide more comprehensive regional support for public education could eventually result in savings of more than $1 billion if districts share services and find lower-cost ways to deliver support for students.
That message was delivered today by Andrew Benson, executive director of Ohio Education Matters, to a gathering of regional education leaders at the fall conference of the Ohio Educational Service Center Association and the Ohio Treasurers of Educational Service Centers in Columbus.
“From our benchmarking work, we know that Ohio could save more than $1 billion if school districts were to meet the performance levels of their best-in-class peers in non-instructional spending,” Benson told the group in Columbus. “The state’s shared service initiative will be a great tool to help districts reach that goal.”
Ohio budget expands digital learning opportunities for students
July, 2011 – Ohio has turned an important corner on the road to expanding high-quality, student-centric learning opportunities by including in the new state budget bill changes and initiatives that will expand the use of digital learning for primary and secondary school students, Ohio Education Matters said in a statement released today.
National digital learning experts reacted positively to the state’s legislation.
"The U.S. education system currently operates as an 8-track tape in an iPod world," said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education and co-chair of Digital Learning Now! "Because of the bold leadership of Governor Kasich and House and Senate members, more students in the Buckeye state will have the opportunity to achieve their God-given potential. Ohio is on a path to transform education for the 21st century and give more students access to a customized education through digital learning.”
"The digital learning provisions of this legislation will greatly expand learning opportunities for students and teachers," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, former governor of West Virginia, and co-chair of Digital Learning Now! "Today, the best learning is a result of high-quality teaching joined with high-quality technology."
Download press release with more responses from national digital learning leaders.
Benchmarking Ohio's School Districts: Identifying districts that get more for their money in non-instructional spending
Ohio school districts could save nearly $1.4 billion a year if they were able to emulate the best practices of the most efficient districts in the state – a savings that would nearly equal the 10 percent cut state leaders suggested they needed to make to help balance the next biennial budget, according to an independent study released today by Ohio Education Matters.
The significance of these savings is that the state may be able to reduce its support for primary and secondary education by as much as 10 percent without forcing districts to make deep cuts in instructional spending.
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Download the report: Benchmarking Ohio's School Districts: Identifying districts that get more for their money in non-instructional spending
- Download a list of all best-in-class benchmark districts by county
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See how all Ohio school districts compared to the most efficient in non-instructional services:
- Ohio Smart Schools recommendations for promoting efficiencies in school district non-instructional spending
Ohio Smart Schools' study recommendations heard by the Ohio Senate Finance Committee
May 11, 2011 - Andrew Benson, Executive Director of Ohio Education Matters and Lisa Duty, Ph. D., Director of External Affairs for KnowledgeWorks Foundation presented testimony to the Ohio Senate Finance Committee. Benson spoke in support of sections of Amended Substitute House Bill 153 that provide support for Ohio public school districts to save dollars by becoming more efficient in delivering services and offered further suggestions on how the State of Ohio could do even more to encourage efficiency.
Duty spoke in support of the establishment of an Ohio Digital Learning Task Force to create a strategy that would expand digital learning, enable students to customize thir education and produce cost savings to help meet the needs of Ohio's economy.
Read Andrew Benson's testimony
Ohio HB 153: Ohio Smart Schools' study recommendations heard by the Ohio House Finance Committee
April 13, 2011 - Andrew Benson, Executive Director of Ohio Education Matters and Lisa Duty, Ph. D., Director of External Affairs for KnowledgeWorks Foundation presented testimony to the Ohio House Finance Committee regarding the state budget bill, HB 153.
Read Andrew Benson's Testimony
Get Creative: The necessary challenge to schools in the Governor's budget
The details coming out of Gov. John Kasich's proposed budget show Ohio schools holding the short end of the stick. With very few exceptions, districts face significant cuts in state funding during the next two years. The message to administrators is: Find creative ways to work smarter in the way you operate schools.
If the budget is unforgiving, it also serves as a necessary spur to action. It's not that the hard times were not anticipated. Rather, the austerity of the Kasich budget has left school administrators little choice but to accept the challenge to transform how schools do business and to do so more quickly than they might have expected. Not only does the budget not replace expiring federal stimulus funds but it also shortens the schedule for reimbursing schools for revenues wiped out along with taxes on utilities and business inventory and equipment.
To ease the crunch, Kasich points out correctly that he has offered essential tools for districts to step up to the task, encouraging them to seek greater efficiencies in regional partnerships. Fortunately, former Gov. Ted Strickland already had set in motion reviews that lend credibility to the call to consolidate services across school districts. With authorization from the former governor, Ohio Education Matters, a subsidiary of the education think tank KnowledgeWorks, has been reviewing school operations since last year in the ''Ohio Smart Schools'' project.
The group has released reports identifying best practices that significantly reduce operating costs. The projection is that if applied statewide, the best practices modeled now in a few districts (the Akron school district is cited among the best) could save Ohio $1.4 billion in non-instructional expenditures such as food services, student transportation, building maintenance and administrative services.
Wisely, the Kasich budget incorporates some of the project's recommendations. The governor proposes creating regional centers to enable districts to share support services. It also would create regional purchasing pools for health insurance, using the clout of size to negotiate lower costs.
There is no doubt that school districts deserve better. They deserve adequate resources. They also must confront a hard reality. State funds are tight. Local taxpayers already face a burden. Under the circumstances, districts must save and consolidate. — Published in the Akron Beacon Journal March 31, 2011
Meeting funding challenges and seizing leadership opportunities with digital learning
Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise (President of Alliance for Excellent Education), Tom Vander Ark (Education Entrepreneur and digital learning advocate), John Watson (Founder, Evergreen Education Group) and Deirdre Finn (Executive Director of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education) were among those who participated in a digital learning summit January 25 in Columbus.
Learning Unbound, which is part of the Ohio Smart Schools initiative, explored ways digital learning can improve student performance and lower education costs. To see highlights of the event, visit the Ohio Smart Schools YouTube channel.
Analysis: Ohio's rural school districts could save most in non-instructional spending if they met efficiencies of top performers
CINCINNATI – (March 7, 2011) – Ohio’s rural public school districts have the potential to save up to 24 percent in non-instructional spending if they were to follow the lead of their most efficient peers, a savings potential that is higher than in urban and suburban districts, according to an independent analysis released today by Ohio Education Matters.
Much of that savings could come from greater efficiencies in student transportation, where rural districts could save up to 29 percent if they were to meet the performance of their best-in-class peer districts, the analysis found.
“Ohio school districts have the ability to improve efficiency in non-instructional spending areas that won’t hurt student achievement and will help close the budget gap,” said Andrew Benson, Executive Director of Ohio Education Matters, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks. “We urge Governor Kasich and the state to do everything in their power to help school districts achieve these greater efficiencies.”
The analysis shows that Ohio’s 339 rural school districts could save a total of $438 million through efficiencies, which represents a savings of $177.84 per pupil. That is compared to a total savings of $600 million for urban school districts, which represents a savings of only $153.93 per pupil, and a total savings of $344 million for suburban districts, which represents only $141.58 per pupil.
Read the benchmarking analysis
Report: Ohio School districts could save millions and improve outcomes with better regional support from the state
Ohio needs new regional structures to help school districts share services and to help communities better focus local resources on problems in the educational system that are holding some children back, according to a new independent report released Feb. 24 by Ohio Education Matters.
The report, the second in the Ohio Smart Schools initiative, recommended that the state collapse fractured existing regional entities into Regional Service Agencies that would lead the state’s effort to save hundreds of millions in education spending by sharing services across districts.
In addition, the report called on the state to expand existing P-16 councils into a statewide network of regional P-16 councils. These councils would help create an infrastructure of support for local schools and districts by connecting them more closely to their local and regional service providers for children.
“Most schools and districts in Ohio do not have the ability to easily share services and get the cost efficiencies of regional service delivery,” said Andrew Benson, Executive Director of Ohio Education Matters, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks. “Building a regional market for services would allow districts to reduce costs and focus more dollars and attention on the classroom.”
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Download Towards a New Model of Educational Governance for Ohio
- Read the New York Times article on Strive Together, a Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky P-16 council highlighted for its success in the Ohio Smart Schools report on educational governance.
Report: Ohio can save up to $138 million a year by changing how school districts purchase employee health insurance
A Check-up on School Employee Health Care: A Proposal to Reduce Costs Without Reducing Quality
Ohio public school districts can save up to $138 million a year in employee health care costs if the state were require them to pool together in large groups that benefit from larger economies of scale, according to a report released Feb. 11 by Ohio Education Matters.
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Download A Check-up on School Employee Health Care »
- Download the background study from the University of Cincinnati prepared for KnowledgeWorks: Analysis of School Employee Health Benefit:Update to the 2006 Mercer Study
Further research and recommendations will be released in the coming week as Ohio Smart Schools points the way with effective practices, the most promising research and ideas from the public in three areas:
- Improving student achievement without raising costs
- Reducing spending without hurting student achievement
- Tapping community strengths to help support student achievement