Youngstown students went back to school this week amid tension between local and state education leaders. The district is in danger of being taken over by the state unless a lawsuit filed last week is able to stop the planned overhaul of the school system. StateImpact Ohio's Amy Hansen recently spent a few days in Youngstown, and takes a look at the link between the problems plaguing the city and those hindering the success of the school district.
It’s the beginning of a new school year at Taft Elementary, and a batch of kindergartners are learning an important life skill: how to navigate the cafeteria.
Walking in a single file line, surrounded by stainless steel refrigerators more than twice their height, the kids hand over a yellow lunch ticket to a cafeteria attendant in exchange for today’s meal--a ham and cheese stromboli plus a side of fries--before they’re each faced with a tough question.
"Chocolate," she asked.
"Uh, milk," the student said.
"Yeah, I know," the cafeteria attendant said. "Chocolate milk or white milk."
"White," the student said.
As far as first days go, officials say this one was pretty typical. But behind-the-scenes, that’s not quite the case.
"I’m a little apprehensive about my job security," said Youngstown teacher Lori Clark. "That’s what I think a lot of teachers are, they’re just worried."
Clark and others in her union are worried about House Bill 70.
Over the summer, lawmakers introduced and passed the measure within 24 hours, with little time for public comment.
The new law, allows for the state to essentially take over districts that have been continually failing for years. A new committee would appoint a CEO to oversee all of the district’s administrative functions, including hiring staff, overseeing class sizes, and having the option to open up teachers’ collective bargaining agreements.
Youngstown is first on the list.
"It happened so fast that I think everybody’s scared, like people are gonna come in and go, 'oh my gosh, this school is horrible,' when really it’s not," said Clark. "There’s a lot of dedicated people and I think maybe the way this happened is making people apprehensive about how we’re perceived."
It happened through a series of meetings with leaders in Columbus and members of a so called “cabinet” including the president of Youngstown State University, the Bishop of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, a former Youngstown Superintendent, and the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce president, Tom Humphries.
“The breaking point was the fact that we have a potential of 10,000 students in the City of Youngstown," he said. "Of that, 5,000 go to open enrollment or other school districts. The concern was, nobody’s helping that 5,000 left. So that’s really what drove it, was the fact that we had 5000 kids that didn’t seem to have an out and the system they were in didn’t seem like it was providing an adequate result.
Youngstown’s graduation rate clocks in at 69 percent. Schools have consistently earned “F"s on the state report card. And only one percent of the Class of 2013 tested ready for college.
The schools’ ills mirror the city’s struggles. When Youngstown’s steel economy collapsed in the 1970’s and 80’s, the city’s population took a huge hit. Today, 36 percent of the city’s roughly 70,000 residents live in poverty.
The Chamber of Commerce’s Humphries says, H.B. 70 could change all of that.
"This school district is going to be classified as one of the best urban center school districts in the next few years," he said.
The new school plan already has one famous fan: Ohio governor John Kasich.
Earlier this month, the GOP presidential hopeful used a chunk of his time at an education event in New Hampshire to talk up the plan, saying it should serve as a model for urban education across the country.
"I actually believe what’s gonna happen in Youngstown, which has been a hard hit town, where jobs are now coming back, I believe what we’re doing in Youngstown to improve those schools is gonna save the city," he said.
But not so fast, said the area’s Democratic state senator, Joe Schiavoni, who’s not happy with the governor or the Ohio Department of Education.
"Kasich did what he wanted to do, ODE did what they wanted to do, but I’m not going to allow them to make us and Youngstown look like a bunch of idiots across the state, like, that the great governor Kasich had to come and save us from ourselves,” he said.
Schiavoni’s thoughts are echoed by many people across the city.
Last week, a handful of local and statewide groups, including the Youngstown City School Board and the Ohio Education Association, filed a lawsuit against the state in order to stop the takeover.
The plaintiffs are gambling on a technicality.
They say the law didn’t receive the required number of hearings in the legislature, which violates the state constitution, adding that the law wipes away residents’ local control.
Now, the fate of the plan sits in the hands of a Franklin County judge.