Gov. Quiet On Funding For Education Changes

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's governor is planning to increase spending for Ohio's elementary and secondary schools by $925 million in the new state budget.

But a day after delivering the state of the state address and laying out his plans for education reform, Gov. Ted Strickland is still keeping the details of how to pay for it under wraps, NBC 4's Patrick Preston reported.

Speaking to a gathering of reporters, Strickland reiterated three times that he will wait until Monday to provide a detailed budget to pay for his educational reform ideas, which have drawn praise from both Republicans and Democrats.

"One of the reasons that I'm trying to stress education as strongly as I am is that I believe when this recovery occurs, we must be prepared to take advantage of it," Strickland said.

He is counting on Congress to give Ohio $3.4 billion in stimulus package money to help pay for his education reform proposals, but said the budget now and in the future will not depend on federal help.

"This is a very tough budget. Some of our agencies of state government are going to be funded at 80 to 90 percent of current funding levels," Strickland said.

Republicans have praised some of Strickland's reform efforts, but the murky financial picture has many questioning how Strickland and the state can afford it after reducing the tax burden at the local level.

"If we lower the taxpayer contribution from 23 mills to 20 mills, I'm not certain how much that means the state has to come up with to make up for that difference. It looks like a lot of money to me," said State Rep. Bill Batchelder, House Minority Leader.

Teachers could also influence the cost as the head of the state's largest teacher's union made it clear that some reforms will have to pass through the negotiating table.

"Each one of our schools has collective bargaining or a master agreement that lays out their year, their hours of employment and their terms and conditions," said Patricia Frost-Brooks, President of the Ohio Education Association. "The reaction has been great -- fantastic. On an opposite side, how are we going to get this done?"

Strickland's proposals such as making it easier to remove underachieving teachers from the classroom are exciting Republicans.

"It has become a situation in which most of the school boards don't want to go through what is required to remove a teacher that is either incompetent or negligent in education," Batchelder said.

The governor seems determined to push for reform as evidenced when asked whether his ideas might lead teachers out of Ohio.

"If a teacher says, 'I'm going to teach in Kentucky instead of Ohio because the school day or the school year is longer in Ohio,' I would say to them, 'I hope you enjoy Lexington or Louisville or Hazard or wherever you go,'" he said.

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