Hottinger writes about school funding

State Representative Jay Hottinger recently e-mailed a position paper on school funding that has considerable merit but got little if any ink. It tells how Governor Strickland is using one-time federal funding dollars that will not be available in two years. That means, Jay says, “when our next budget is due ... it will have to be either cut from our schools or raised through additional taxes or cuts elsewhere in our budget that has a total deficit of $7.3 million.”

You can read Jay’s paper at this Newark Tea Party link.

In related news, there was an AP report about Governor Stickland’s finagling of federal funds for schools. Seems he stowed $922 million of that money in Ohio’s general revenue fund.

The crux of the article, headlined “Stimulus funds for Ohio schools need new treatment,” was that Strickland heeded Washington’s warning that “a second round of education funding could be jeopardized if (states) don’t spend the first round as Congress and the president intended,” and he moved the money to a special revenue category.