Undermining Support for Our Schools

As a result of being told by education reformers that our nation’s education system is failing us, it is becoming increasingly difficult to generate state and local support for our public schools.  For example, from 2008 to 2013, state funding for our public schools was reduced in thirty-seven states.  Because of these reductions in state funding, school officials in most states are having to turn to their local communities for financial support.  In forty-one of our fifty states, this support for our schools is contingent upon the passage of local school tax initiatives.  While the rules for local school tax initiatives vary from state to state, all of these initiatives have one thing in common.  When they involve an increase in taxes, they are difficult to pass.  In Ohio, for example, the passage rate is only about 40 percent for school issues proposing an increase in taxes.