Notes from my Knapsack 11-1-18

Notes from my Knapsack 11-1-18

Jeff Gill

 

Shared responsibility, shared benefits

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Over the last couple months, I've shared with you all some stories from the earliest days of formal education on the Ohio frontier.

 

From the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 on to statehood in 1803, public education was a priority for American settlement. The mechanisms for providing this in a newly pioneered area ranged from set-aside tracts of land in the first surveys for the placement and support of schools, to a planned process of mutual aid through community construction of the buildings, and the support of what were in the earliest days seasonal teachers.

 

Caleb Atwater led an investigation into what it would take to provide a general, statewide system of free public education in 1822; the effort stumbled in part because the committee assembled by the governor couldn't agree on . . . how to pay for it. Some thought the costs of education could best be borne by the sale or lease of public lands, others argued that a property tax would be the most sustainable method.

 

"Common schools" weren't organized under Ohio law until 1825, and the final decision was to mandate a statewide half-mil property tax. However, the implementation of common schools (mostly just from what we'd call first grade to about seventh grade) was uneven across the state until around 1850 when the legislature started requiring superintendents and school district structures. Attendance, in fact, wasn't mandatory until 1921, which was the first year that state law required that all children from age six to age eighteen attend school. There were still provisions allowing some to leave school at sixteen, mostly for farming, and it included a requirement that a youth had to be at least sixteen to work in industry.

 

So the expectations and funding of public education has been a work in progress over two centuries. I am constantly pointing out to people that as recently as 1970, if 50 percent of all youth in a school district graduated with a high school diploma, that was considered quite good. Those online "look at what it took graduate high school in 1893" memes don't mention that three to four percent graduated twelfth grade back then.

 

And special education, which we take for granted today, was not mandated until 1973. Some areas and districts provided it, but it was not required. Now it's an absolute obligation, and one we'd not want to retreat from.

 

Ohio has been wrestling, in the courts, in the Statehouse, and at the ballot box since 1991 around the formulas and funding of public education. We laid down a marker in the Ohio Constitution of 1851, and we're still trying to figure out how to pay for it. And we've expanded education from being a privilege for some to a necessity for all, with legal requirements pushing school districts and families into sometimes costly mandates.

 

Which brings us to school levies, and the deferred responsibility to the local voter to make sense of the whole. Even in a series of columns, it's hard to figure out what to focus on, and where to gloss over before a reader's eyes glaze over.

 

What I'm certain of is this: schools are like roads and bridges and safe water and street lighting.  You may never cross a certain bridge in a township, but we all benefit from free and open transportation in the economy. I may not walk under a lamppost in one end of the village, but we all benefit from increased safety and security.

 

And having excellent schools, whether I have a child in those buildings or not, is part of building a community that benefits me and blesses us all.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him about how you'd like to see public benefits paid for at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.