By Bill Bush
The Columbus Dispatch
The state’s largest school districts, including Columbus and South-Western, are benefitting from millions in additional state dollars by hiring employees and buying services through an Educational Service Center.
State law changed in 2012 to make a share of state education money available to districts with at least 16,000 students if they work through an ESC. But that has also put a strain on smaller districts because lawmakers did not increase overall funding for ESCs, created originally to provide educational expertise and special services to small districts.
Before 2012, the law required all but the very largest districts to contract with an ESC. Since the new law, five of the biggest districts in the state have also opted in, receiving extra state funding.
“By my count, the only district left that is not aligned to an ESC is Toledo,” after Cincinnati, Cleveland and Akron’s city districts joined the program, said Craig Burford, executive director of the Ohio Educational Service Center Association.
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