Restore local control to Lorain Schools

Lorain Schools is right to back a bill that would free it from state control. Unfortunately, the bill, introduced by state Sen. Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville, would leave the state still in control of public schools in East Cleveland and Youngstown, the only other districts in Ohio in the same predicament. State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, co-sponsored the bill, giving it a better chance of passing than previous proposals to roll back state control have enjoyed. All of them have failed. Under the bill, which remains in committee, Lorain Schools would have to create an academic improvement plan. Once the state Board of Education approved the plan, the district would have three years to meet the benchmarks it set for itself. Two one-year extensions would be available as well before the state would reassert control if the district failed to make the required improvements. Manning told us that while he wanted to end state control of the East Cleveland and Youngstown districts as well, he had to prioritize his constituents. He said that freeing the other districts would be a heavier lift than saving Lorain. For starters, Lorain was the only one of the three to raise its overall grade on the most recent state report cards, for the 2018-19 school year. It went from an F to a D, which, while not enough to end state control, was at least a step in the right direction. East Cleveland and Youngstown still had Fs. Because of the pandemic, report cards weren't issued last school year, nor will they be this school year. That prevented additional districts from falling under state control after a moratorium on such transitions expired, but it left the districts already under the state's thumb in a holding pattern. "They're stuck in no man's land," Manning said, "where they can't get worse, but they can't get out." Manning also said he didn't see the same "alignment" in the other districts among their CEOs, Academic Distress Commissions, school boards, teachers and other stakeholders. Lorain, by contrast, has presented a united front in pushing to end state control, he said. For instance, during testimony before the Education Committee on Monday, Lorain CEO Jeff Graham said he supported the bill, even though its passage would cost him about $40,000 in pay and reduce his powers to those of an ordinary superintendent. House Bill 70, the ill-conceived law that created the takeover mechanism in 2015, invested the CEOs with almost total authority over their districts. They answered only to Academic Distress Commissions largely controlled by the state. The only power left to local school boards was to place levies on the ballot. In Lorain that led to clashes between the board and former CEO David Hardy Jr., who refused even to meet with the board and fostered a culture of secrecy and micromanagement. Graham was up front about the "instability and uncertainty" caused by the lack of local control in Lorain. "Our community doesn't trust past decisions we've made, because we aren't bound by local oversight or held accountable by local representatives," he testified. Many of those same issues have played out in East Cleveland and Youngstown, which is why they, too, deserve to have state control lifted. Thus far, the three districts have shared a common goal, but if Lorain is freed, there would be less political pressure on the General Assembly and Gov. Mike DeWine to do the same for the other two districts. That could leave them languishing under state control for years to come. Manning and Brenner should work to add East Cleveland and Youngstown to the bill. Failing that, they should move ahead with the bill and at least help Lorain. That wouldn't, however, absolve them of the responsibility to keep pushing to end state control for the two other districts and find better ways to improve academic performance in struggling school systems across the state. Nor should Lorain abandon East Cleveland and Youngstown in their fight. Lorain's support could still prove instrumental to them. State takeovers have proven a failure. Ending them might start in Lorain, but it must not stop there.