“It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”

                   — Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland

Private schools are trying to make sense of something that really doesn’t make sense.

They are desperately trying to regain their balance and recover from the unexpected $59 million that was stripped in the budget. This was money that was mainly used to help fund standardized testing, remedial reading and math, textbooks, speech and hearing therapy, instructional supplies and equipment, guidance counselors, and nurses. 

These resources are most often the services that children, especially in urban private schools, need the most.  Suffice it to say, these cuts will have lasting and damaging effects on private schools that continue to serve students at a fraction of the cost spent to educate students in public schools. 

Adding insult to injury, these are not the first cuts that private schools have had to endure.  During the budget adjustments that occurred during last fiscal year, private schools suffered a 4.75 percent cut to which the 15% cut has been added.  Thus, private schools were subject to a double whammy.

What is striking about the cuts is the total inequity of treatment of private schools when compared to public schools.  It is especially striking when you consider the educational outcomes of private schools and the quest for education reform in Ohio.  Why penalize those who have a proven and effective track record of educating students?  Read more in the statement issued by the Catholic Conference of Ohio.

The impact of how this will affect individual schools remains to be seen, but the forecast is not good for students, parents, or schools.

– Tisha Brady