The city of Bay Village hosts one of the best school districts in the state of Ohio with a student body of 2,502 students. Around 10% of the student body is economically disadvantaged and around 7% are minorities. The school earns around $39.7 million in total revenue, leaving around $15,842 dollars per student (with $14,249 in fees). Around 98% of this revenue is from the people of Bay Village. The district is successful due to its sufficient funding and good leadership in a community with a smaller population size.
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District includes Cleveland, Bratenahl, Linndale, Newburgh Heights, and parts of Brook Park and Garfield Heights and serves a student body of around 37,701 students. Only 15.4% of the student body is white, 64.1% are black, and 16.3% are Hispanic/Latino; meanwhile, 100% of the student body is economically disadvantaged and 4.9% are homeless. The district receives $745.2 million dollars in revenue; however, 50% of that revenue comes from the state rather than the taxes of the people.
The City of Youngstown student body consists of 5,252 students; around 14.1% of these students are white, 57.7% are black, and 19.4% are Hispanic/Latino. The school’s revenue is around $123 million with around 23,210 dollars per student. Only 29% of their revenue comes from local sources while 58% comes from the state.
Looking at these numbers, provided by U.S. News, shows that all these schools are economically equal despite the economic position of their residents. The state is involved in the funding of the East Cleveland and Youngstown districts because the revenue that comes from taxes alone isn’t enough. Bay Village is almost entirely funded by local sources and is then run and funded by the same local government. The schools that rely on state funding get very little attention and information from the state government and are then run locally but not funded locally. The districts of Youngstown and East Cleveland both have an impressive amount of money dedicated to each student, however, the students owe more in fees than the designated value of their resources. The students of Bay Village have to pay less in fees than they are given in resources.
So while all these districts have impressive numbers on paper, it is very clear that the cities that are known for their more economically disadvantaged school districts aren’t run with the efficiency as the highly rated school districts; this is because the state government is only willing to provide the money without ensuring that these districts have the proper resources, staff, and opportunities as the locally funded schools.
