COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As Central Ohio students break for Christmas, a national education group has released a scathing report about how Ohio schools are funded.
A report released Monday by the Washington, D.C.-based Education Trust alleges that money meant for the 14 larges districts I state is never reaching those in need.
The report is called No Accounting For Fairness and was released by the non-partisan group Education Trust, NBC 4's Tanya Hutchins reported.
The study focused on teacher salaries and Columbus City Schools said that alone isn't enough.
It also looked at elementary school teacher salaries in Ohio's 14 largest districts, including Columbus, Dublin, Hilliard, Olentangy, South-Western and Westerville.
The study found average salaries are lower in schools with the highest number of low-income students.
"What the Education Trust is pointing out is the state and federal money intended to teach the poorest kids and raise their achievement level is not reaching these children," said Mark Real, of KidsOhio.org.
Columbus City Schools Communication Director Jeff Warner said it is important to keep the study in perspective because it doesn't look at performance.
"So when you look at just te salary part of this study, it doesn't look at how the school would be performing. It assumes that if you have less experience teaching, there is less performance and that wouldn't necessarily correlate," Warner said.
"Ohio has made a lot of progress in closing the gap between school districts, but this is talking about the gap within school districts and schools with the least number of poor kids and the highest number of poor kids," Real said.
Education Trust is suggesting more uniform accountability so different school districts can be compared more easily and to find a way for the funding to actually follow the children it's intended for.
Columbus City Schools has a tracking system in place for some of its funding already.
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