GREEN: Councilman Stephen Dyer met some resistance Wednesday to his proposal for the city to provide college scholarships to at-risk Green High School graduates.
Five residents attended a meeting called by Dyer to discuss his Green Reaches Educational Attainment Together (GREAT) Scholarship proposal that would use about 2 percent of unencumbered city tax dollars to provide renewable $2,500 scholarships to students whose parents don’t have college degrees. The meeting was held at the Akron-Summit County Public Library Green branch.
Former Mayor Dan Croghan and Don Brott, who served on the Green Board of Education with Croghan several years ago, spoke against the proposal, while resident Cathy Scherer was concerned that the plan doesn’t apply to youngsters who live in Green but attend private schools.
Two Green school board members were also in attendance.
The issue is expected to be discussed Tuesday at City Council during committee meetings at 5 p.m. and the regular meeting at 7 p.m.
While Dyer said there was $12.3 million in unencumbered funds at the end of 2016, city Finance Director Steven Schmidt said that money is spoken for.
Earlier Thursday, Schmidt said the city’s unencumbered fund totals $27 million, combining the unspent General Fund amount and more than $14 million from city income taxes. However, more than $20 million of the total has been required for several years to provide a six-month reserve operating fund that allows the city to obtain favorable bond ratings for needed capital improvements.
He also noted the city currently has approximately $55 million in bonded debt for which it is liable “so the reserves don’t even cover that amount.”
Giving opportunity
Dyer, who is an educational policy analyst in Columbus, said his plan is designed as “Green’s unique opportunity to provide scholarships to its kids and benefit the community.”
Dyer said Ohio has struggled with educational attainment. He said that traditionally Ohioans have relied on the state for this, but that funding has been drastically cut.
“The evidence is pretty overwhelming that the more educated the state and the community is the better off the economy is,” Dyer said, adding that many states and communities around the country are recognizing this and starting to invest directly in ensuring kids’ academic success beyond high school.
The Dyer plan would provide $2,500 scholarships to qualified students with a 2.5 or higher GPA. They must have attended Green schools at least two years and be Green High School graduates.
Dyer estimated only about 2 percent of the unspent funds each year would be needed to finance the plan.
He cited Tulsa, Okla., and Boston as communities where publicly funded taxpayer dollars are provided for full community college rides. He also noted the LeBron James Family Foundation is funding college education of entire classes of Akron students.
Dyer said Kent State Stark has proposed adding $1,000 scholarships to each Green scholarship student if the proposal gets council approval, an approach that may be adopted by other post-secondary educational facilities.
“Ohio is in desperate need for something to help these kids graduate” because the state does not do what it used to. “That leads us to look for solutions at the local level,” Dyer said.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us for relatively small percentage of funding to do a lot of great things for our community.”
Croghan weighs in
Meanwhile, former Mayor Croghan said he is all for education but nothing in the city charter permits such funding. He stressed that as a growing city, Green has a lot of needs: sanitary sewers, storm water, highway problems.
“You have to ask yourself … is it within my purview as a councilman to provide scholarships to students?”
Croghan told Dyer: “I think you are well-intentioned, you are an intelligent guy, but to say it is your responsibility at the local level to use income tax revenue to provide scholarships to second generations of Green residents is folly. It makes no sense.”
Dyer countered, “I agree with you. Why? Because it is the state’s responsibility. The state is failing to do its job. So we have two choices: We can bellyache about the state not doing its job, or we can do something about it because we can.”