School fees hurt Ohio families

A movement to eliminate public school fees in Ohio is gaining momentum, and now has the support of a state representative from southern Ohio.
School fees are a longstanding problem in Ohio that create a serious educational barrier for many families. It is common for public schools in Ohio to charge families $25 to $50 per child simply to attend school. Those fees are often in addition to the requirements that students bring in supplies that cost between $10 and $50 per child.
Many Ohio families do not have enough money to meet their own basic needs, and have a nearly impossible time trying to pay the school fees.
Advocates for families have been calling for the fees to be eliminated, and now Rep. Debbie Phillips, who represents the 92nd Ohio House District, is backing the proposal to have the fees eliminated. Phillips is writing an amendment to the state’s education bill, and hopes to gain support for it in the Ohio House. All Ohio residents are asked to contact their state representatives and express their support for this legislation.
Fees charged by schools have become a perfectly legal and acceptable form of taxation, initiated at the hands of the local school boards, with few restrictions. These fees also are an extremely regressive type of tax that hurts those children in families who are already having the greatest challenges succeeding in school.
Now that state leaders are making changes to the school funding system in Ohio, it is the perfect time to eliminate these fees and create a truly free public education system.

Jennifer Pierce, a single mom living in Tuppers Plains, has three children in school and simply can’t pay the fees all at once at the beginning of each school year.
“I just try to pay one at a time,” Pierce said. The school would like her to pay all of the fees right away, but she is allowed to spread out the payments throughout the year.
“They don’t care as long as they get paid by the end of the school year,” Pierce said. If the fees are not paid by the end of the year, the district can hold onto the students’ grade cards, she added.
It’s also expensive paying for all of the school supplies, Pierce said. One year, she had to send in expensive extra supplies such as a roll of film and a package of copy paper, and it was hard to come up with the money.
“Plus, if they play sports, you have to pay for that,” Pierce said. A $50 fee allows students in the district to play sports, but the parents still have to pay for cleats and other items for their children. Most field trips are paid for, but the eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C. this year cost $500 and was simply out of reach for Pierce’s son.
“He couldn’t go because I didn’t have the money to pay for him to go,” she said.

“I think the schools should be accountable. They should be the ones that have to take care of that,” Coolville resident Tasha Adams said about the school fees. She has two children in school, and has a hard enough time paying all of her monthly expenses.
The school fees average around $20 per child for her family, plus all of the money that is spent on supplies like paper towels and tissues.
“When we were younger, we just needed the notebooks, the pens and pencils, you know certain things like that,” Adams said. Today, though, the schools ask parents to send in items like paper towels, tissues and hand sanitizers.
“I just don’t think that’s right at all,” she said.

Lisa Roberts, who lives in Coolville and runs the Friends and Neighbors Community Food Center in Lottridge, said that school fees are very hard on her clients, and they were also tough on her family.
“I raised six kids and school fees kill you. They are very, very hard to come up with,” Roberts said. Many families can’t put money aside for the fees because they don’t have the extra $35 or more.
“They keep telling your kid over and over, ‘Your school fees haven’t been paid.’ They ask in front of the class,” Roberts said. “It’s horrible for the child and it’s bad for the parent, too, because you’re already feeling bad enough that you can’t come up with the money.”
The teachers do what they can to be nice to the children, but they have to ask for the fees because the schools have to collect them, Roberts said.
“Sometimes they won’t give you your report card if you can’t come up with a school fee,” Roberts said, adding that her children were faced with that problem several times.
“Plus, you have to send all those supplies. (The list of supplies) is enormous. They want you to bring all kinds of stuff,” Roberts said. The list of supplies often includes several boxes of tissues, even though most families she knows can’t afford tissues and just use toilet paper instead, Roberts said.
“You can’t very well send toilet paper in to your teacher,” she added.

One grandmother from Athens County is currently raising three of her grandchildren, and also has a difficult time with the school fees, which cost her $25 per child. She and her husband live on a fixed income, and it is difficult to pay these fees along with other extra costs that come up with children throughout the year.
“I know they need the money, I’m not saying they don’t,” she said. But for families that are just getting by, it is extremely difficult to have to pay these fees, she added.
School pictures can be another big cost during the year, she said, as some packages cost as much as $45. She can’t afford a big package of pictures, and wonders if she will be able to afford any of the pictures next year.

Catherine Hogsett of Glouster lives on a very tight, fixed budget and can’t afford the cost of school supplies each year.
She has a back injury and is unable to work, and lives on $400 a month in child support, along with Food Assistance Program funding. The elementary school her children attend did not charge fees this year, but did ask for supplies, Hogsett said.
“It was over almost $200,” she said about the supplies for her children.
“They had to have reams of paper, they had to have four or five boxes of tissues,” Hogsett said. Her mother helped her pay for the supplies, or she would not have been able to afford them all, Hogsett said. Her son also wants to play baseball this spring, and there is another $25 fee to be on a team, she said.
“I really think that any help that can be given to people, especially people who are on assistance, for education would be beneficial,” Hogsett said. She added that by helping people pay for their educations today, it helps everyone tomorrow as the graduates will be able to get better jobs and bring positive benefits to their communities.

Grandparents raising grandchildren in Ohio face numerous financial challenges

State should focus on basic needs

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, wrote an opinion piece that was published in newspapers around Ohio recently about the crisis facing the state's emergency food network and about what state leaders can to to help people living in poverty. Click here to read the article as published in The Athens NEWS.

Video discusses public assistance in Ohio

Ohio needs to eliminate school fees

One issue that is largely forgotten in Ohio's school funding debate is the issue of fees that parents have to pay to send their children to public schools. Athens County Job and Family Services is asking Ohio legislators to eliminate these fees in order to help Ohio families. Jack Frech, Athens County Job and Family Services director, had a letter about this issue published in The Columbus Dispatch on March 17. Click here to read the letter.

Testimony presented to Ohio House of Representatives subcommittee

House Finance and Appropriations Committee
Human Services Subcommittee

Testimony of Jack Frech, Director,
Athens County Department of Job and Family Services

Here is a link to an Ohio Works First fact sheet presented with the testimony.

Here is a link to a document telling the stories of a few of our clients. This document was also presented with the testimony.

Chairwoman Brown, ranking Member Burke and members of the subcommittee. I am Jack Frech, Director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.
I am here today to request that the benefit level for the Ohio Works First Program be increased by at least $100 a month. According to the Governor’s budget proposal, the average OWF benefit is $358 per month. Under his plan, these families will only receive increased benefits of about $19 a month over the next two years. Even when combined with food stamps, the total benefits still are only slightly over half of the federal poverty level.

Today in Ohio, there are more than 140,000 children who depend on the OWF program. Their families are faced with daily struggles to meet the most very basic of human needs. They are often hungry, cold and living in substandard housing. It must be remembered that these are the families who are living by all of the rules of the “reformed welfare” system. They have work requirements, time limits, and strict eligibility requirements. We go to great lengths to verify that they are dirt poor, then we give them half of what we know they need to live on. I know of no other government policy which is as intentionally harmful to children.

Half of these children live with grandparents or other relatives. In a typical situation, a grandmother would receive only about $259 a month for the full time care of a child. That amount compares to:
• An average per child per month cost for childcare is about $450.
• Monthly foster care payments are about $600.
• Monthly payments for the Early Learning Initiative are over $1000.

Intervention programs to help these families such as job training, education , parenting classes, counseling and substance abuse treatment are all unlikely to succeed when so much energy must be focused simply on surviving. When parents are worried about how they are going to feed their children or where they are going to sleep at night, it makes it difficult to succeed in these other programs.

Currently, only about one third of the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families block grant is spent on direct cash assistance through the OWF program. While an additional $100 would not solve the problems these families face, it would make a huge difference in their daily struggle.

I would also ask that the committee restore the funds the Governor’s budget cut from the Counties. These funds have been used to provide a wide range of essential services to low income families as well as offer job and education support. Our agency is losing $1.3 million and 34 staff positions with the following consequences;
• Cuts in eligibility workers and job counselors will increase caseloads by at least 25%
• Work support programs to repair autos, provide gas vouchers for new hires, and pay for training, tools and uniforms have been eliminated.
• Nurses to conduct home visits to help families whose caretakers are disabled have been eliminated.
• A very successful dental access and other supportive health programs have been eliminated.
• A program to provide computers for low income children is gone.
• Contracts for Child welfare services, domestic violence intervention, home delivered meals, summer education camp for poor kids and Big Brothers Big Sisters have been terminated.

All of these cuts have been made at a time when our caseloads for cash assistance, food stamps and other programs are increasing. More and more people need our help, but Ohio has reduced the funding for the programs that have proven to be successful in helping these families.

Our families also struggle with a lack of behavioral health services, especially for adults. Mental health and substance abuse issues are far too prevalent in our clients’ lives. We must commit ourselves to ensuring that the appropriate services are there when needed.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of my testimony.

Video shows huge need at local food pantry

State, federal governments do not provide enough assistance to cover basic needs

Many people believe that cash assistance, food programs and other forms of public assistance provide enough to allow people living in poverty to get by, but that is not the case.
Cash assistance, called Ohio Works First (OWF), is only provided to families with children. The monthly funding is less than one-third of the monthly federal poverty level. The majority of OWF recipients are grandparents raising their grandchildren, and the second highest group of recipients is single mothers. The recipients have to meet strict requirements, including work requirements, in order to be eligible for benefits.
In 2009, a family of two will receive up to $355 per month in OWF funding, while a family of three will receive up to $434 per month.
By comparison, the federal poverty level for a family of two is $1,215 per month. For a family of three, it is $1,526 per month. Some families may also receive money for food through the Food Assistance Program, but that program is designed to only provide about two weeks worth of food per month.
The monthly income for these families is much less than the federal poverty level, and they are forced to turn to food banks and other charitable programs for assistance.
Many people living in poverty in our community have had to leave their homes to move in with family or friends or stay at shelters. Too many children live in overcrowded and unsafe homes and go to bed hungry. Grandparents who are living on fixed incomes often can’t afford the medicine or the medical care they need because all of their money goes to food and living expenses for their families.
People are living in abject poverty all around us, and we cannot allow this to continue.
The human and social service agencies in several southeastern Ohio counties are calling on state and federal leaders to make important changes to help these families.
· Ohio Works First funding must be increased by $100 a month.
· Food Assistance funding must be increased so that it can provide enough food for a whole month.
· Health care services must be available to all adults who live below the federal poverty level.
· Disability income must be increased.
· Funding for mental health and substance abuse counseling for families living below the poverty level must be increased.

These changes will not get families out of poverty, but they will make a big difference in their lives.
Please call, write or e-mail these representatives asking them to make these changes.
· Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland – Governor’s Office, Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 S. High St., Columbus, Ohio 43215-6108. Phone (614) 466-3555. E-mail by logging onto http://www.governor.ohio.gov/ and then clicking on the link that says Contact The Governor.
· State Representative Debbie Phillips - Phillips represents the 92nd Ohio House District. The 92nd District Office can be reached by mail at 77 S. High St., 11th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111. Phone (614) 466-2158. The e-mail address is district92@ohr.state.oh.us.
· State Representative Dan Dodd – Dodd represents the 91sth District and has a mailing address at 77 S. High St., 10th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111. Phone (614) 466-2500 or send an e-mail to district91@ohr.state.oh.us.
· State Representative Clyde Evans – Evans represents the 87th District and can be reached by mail at 77 S. High St., 13th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111. Phone (614) 466-1366 or send an e-mail to district87@ohr.state.oh.us.
· State Representative T. Todd Book – Book represents the 89th District and can be reached by mail at 77 S. High St., 14th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111. Phone (614) 466-2114 or send an e-mail to district89@ohr.state.oh.us
· State Senator Jimmy Stewart – Stewart represents the 20th Senate District and can be reached by mail at Senate Building, Room #040, Ground Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215. His office phone number is (614) 466-8076 and his e-mail address is SD20@senate.state.oh.us.
· State Senator John Carey – Carey represents the 17th Senate District and can be reached by mail at Senate Building, Room 127, First Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Phone (614) 466-8156 or send an e-mail to SD17@senate.state.oh.us.
· U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, Sixth District – 226 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C., 20515. Phone 1-888-706-1833. Wilson can be e-mailed through the link on his office Web site, which is located at http://www.charliewilson.house.gov/.
· U.S. Rep Zack Space, 18th District – 315 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C., 20515. Phone (202) 225-6265. Space can be e-mailed through the link on his office Web site, which is located at space.house.gov.
· U.S Sen. Sherrod Brown – 455 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone (202) 224-2315. Send e-mails from his office Web site, brown.senate.gov.
· U.S Sen. George Voinovich – 524 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone (202) 224-3353. Send e-mails through his office Web site, voinovich.senate.gov.
· The White House – 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20500. Phone (202) 456-1111. Send e-mails to comments@whitehouse.gov.

For more information contact Nick Claussen, community relations coordinator, Athens County Job and Family Services, at (740) 797-2523 or clausn@odjfs.state.oh.us.

Food pantry gives away toys, food for Christmas, sees demand continue to rise

Families from Athens, Meigs and Washington counties poured into the tiny Athens County village of Torch recently, stopping at a small, indiscriminate building to find Christmas presents for their children.

Inside the building, the Friends and Neighbors Community Food Pantry was holding its annual Christmas toy giveaway program. The program is designed to provide enough toys for 100 families, but Director Lisa Roberts said that this year additional families called and asked about toys after the registration deadline, so she hoped to be able to provide for 115 families.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said one Meigs County resident while picking out presents for her children. “If it wasn’t for this, my kids wouldn’t have any Christmas presents this year.”

The woman is unable to work because of her disability, so she tries to survive on her disability income. She does not have enough money each month to pay most of her bills, and this year she knew that for the first time she would not be able to afford to buy Christmas gifts for her children.

“I’m not allowed to buy my own home,” she added. She can barely pay the rent as it is, and said it has been getting harder every day to get by. This year has been the worst, which is why she had to visit the Christmas present giveaway program. Her children have been adjusting well to the tough economic situation at home, but the woman was very happy to have the presents to give them.

Roberts said every year she hears stories similar to this woman’s, stories of people who are just struggling to get by.

“It’s worse this year,” Roberts said. The high gas prices hurt people earlier in the year, the rising prices for groceries and other items have had an impact, and the national economic problems have just made things tougher for many people.

“As winter comes on, it presents another challenge,” Roberts added. Many people have to pay high utility bills during the winter months. Even if they receive funding from home heating assistance programs, that funding often does not get them through the whole winter.

Flu season is also tough on many families living in poverty, Roberts added. Over-the-counter medications can be expensive, but people often need the medicine for themselves or their children. When you add in trying to buy Christmas presents and serving a special Christmas meal at home, it can all cost too much for many families, Roberts said.

The Friends and Neighbors Community Food Pantry toy giveaway program was held over three days, Dec. 18,19 and 20, and provided a lot of toys for families in need. Each family could pick up stuffed animals, large toys, small toys, electronic toys, dolls, coloring books, socks, underwear, sweaters, coats, hats, gloves and other types of items.

“We started working on this in January,” Roberts explained. The food pantry takes donations and saves up items throughout the year, and also buys many of the presents at summer yard sales. Area residents also donate money to the center for the program, and that allows the volunteers to buy toys from local stores. This year, the center also held a Chinese auction where they raffled off Christmas decorations and raised more than $300 for the Christmas present program.

The pantry also held extra food giveaway programs, where local families could pick up items especially for a Christmas meal.

Like many food pantries, Friends and Neighbors operates out of small buildings and humble surroundings. Volunteers run the operation, and many of them have received food and other items from the pantry previously.

But while the Friends and Neighbors program may look small and simple, it is providing a huge service to people in need, and it made Christmas much warmer and memorable to more than 100 families this year. For more information on the Friends and Neighbors programs, call Roberts at (740) 667-0684.

New Census figures show people of all ages are living in poverty in Athens County

The city of Athens has the highest poverty rate in the country for any city its size or larger. Athens County has the highest poverty rate in the state.
Those two statements should alarm and outrage the people of Athens County.
New U.S. Census figures for 2005-2007 show that 52.3 percent of the people in the city of Athens are living in poverty. The figures also show that 31.6 percent of the people of Athens County are living in poverty.
While Ohio University students have an impact on the survey, the Census figures show that the poverty rate in the city is very high even if the students are not counted.
· 50.4 percent, of the children under the age of five in Athens live in poverty.
· 34.6 percent of the city residents who are 18 years old or younger live in poverty.
· 30.5 percent of the married couples with children under the age of five live in poverty.
· 48.8 percent of the families with a female head of household live in poverty.
· 100 percent of the families with a female head of household that have children under the age of five live in poverty.
The Census figures also show the poverty problem for all of Athens County.
· Athens County has the fourth-highest rate in the state of children under the age of 18 living in poverty at 32.4 percent. The state average is 18.5 percent.
· Athens County has the eighth-highest rate in the state for people over the age of 65 living below the poverty level at 13.3 percent. The state average is 8.4 percent.
· Athens County has by far the lowest percent of employed civilians over the age of 16 working in manufacturing. Just 5.6 percent of employed civilians work in manufacturing. The state average is 17 percent, and the highest average is 38.5 percent in Shelby County.
· Athens County also has the highest percentage, again by a wide margin, of employed civilians over the age of 16 who work in service occupations. In the county, 25.1 percent of employed people work in the service industry. The state average is 16.5 percent, and the lowest percent is in 11.9 percent in Delaware County.

The Census numbers show that the students are not the main reason the city’s poverty rate is so high. Athens has a higher poverty rate than other college towns in Ohio such as Bowling Green, Kent and Oxford. The figures show that a very high number of non-students in the city live in poverty.
For the county, the figures clearly show how children, senior citizens and residents of all ages are living in poverty. The county has very few manufacturing jobs where people can make high-paying wages, but has a large number of low-paying, service industry jobs.
The county also has a high number of professional jobs through Ohio University, Hocking College and other institutions, but these jobs are not as accessible as manufacturing positions. Often, the professional jobs are filled by people who move into the area.

Also, there is no reason why the students should not count in the Census figures or why their presence here should allow anyone to downplay the poverty problem.
The students all live in Athens and use city and county services. While they contribute to the university, which creates job and benefits the community, for the most part they do not pay local property taxes or income taxes that help pay for government services. They also do not spend much money at businesses outside of the area near campus.
· The city of Athens has the lowest percentage in the state of married couple households, according to the Census figures. The rate in the city is 24.9 percent while the state average is 49.2 percent.
· The city has the lowest percentage in the state for owner-occupied homes. The rate in the city is 32.1 percent, while the state average is 70 percent.
· The cities that have the highest percentages of married couple households and the highest percentage of owner occupied homes are among the cities that have the lowest poverty levels in the state.
· The city has the second highest rate in the state for people who lived in different homes one year ago. The rate in Athens is 62.1 percent, while Oxford has the highest rate at 63.3 percent. The state average is 15.5 percent.
· The city also has the lowest rate of people who drive to work (or school). In Athens, the rate is 41.2 percent, while statewide the percent is 83.1 percent.
The figures show the city is filled with students who are here for a short time, do not have large incomes and do not impact the community in the way that stable families who own their own homes and have large incomes would.

The state and federal governments need to do more to help the people in need. Cash assistance, which only gets an eligible family up to nearly one-third of the federal poverty level, needs to be increased by $100 per month.
In addition, monthly food stamps funding, which only provides for enough food for two weeks, needs to provide enough food for an entire month. Health care services must be available to all adults who live below the federal poverty level. Disability income must be increased. Funding for mental health and substance abuse counseling for families living below the poverty level must be increased.
All of these programs help those in need, and they help the community as a whole. Studies show that public assistance programs stimulate the economy, because the people who receive the funding spend it at local businesses. For every $1 spent in food stamps, for example, $1.73 goes into the local economy.
We can’t just ignore or downplay these poverty figures, or ignore or downplay these people living in need. It’s time to take action to help.

For more information, contact Nick Claussen, community relations coordinator for Athens County Job and Family Services, at (740) 797-2523 or clausn@odjfs.state.oh.us.