Gov. Mike DeWine sends the exactly wrong message with a proposed budget that undercuts the funding public schools are to receive in the next two years.
The state has had two bienniums (four years) of fair funding of the public schools under a formula that had buy-in from both Republicans and Democrats.
The state government has lived up to its new fair funding program — so far.
Under the new budget, to start on July 1, formula-driven aid to 609 school districts would drop $31.6 million (0.4 percent) in the first year of the budget and then $40.2 million (0.5 percent). These are tiny amounts out of a total of $16 billion over two years that can and should be offset with two years of transfers in those amounts from the state’s savings account (AKA, the Rainy Day Fund).
The problem this cycle, districts and some lawmakers contend, is that the state has not updated the formula for inflation when it comes to calculating what it takes to educate a typical student in each district.
But it has updated the inputs on the other end of the equation — escalating property valuations and resident income — that can give the impression a district is better positioned to raise money locally and, therefore, needs less state help.
Districts that would lose funding include Springfield, Anthony Wayne, Maumee, Ottawa Hills, Sylvania, Bowling Green, Eastwood, Elmwood, Lake, Otsego, Perrysburg, and Rossford.
Both Toledo Public Schools and Washington Local are slated for increases.
The issue here is the commitment this administration has given to the fair school funding plan.
Nor is it fair to cast blame on the state’s two other large school education funds — charter schools and private school vouchers. In both cases, the allocations achieve the state’s goal of funding quality education, and in both cases, the money spent goes farther than it does in the traditional public schools.
Ohio has an urgent need to enhance the education of all Ohio children. This state is too low on the national rankings when it comes to average level of education completed and other metrics such as literacy.
To stay true to the promise of the fair education funding formula, the budget should calculate the dollars paid to the school districts by taking into account BOTH the higher cost of education AND the higher value of property in the community.
Our legislature owes it to Ohio’s future to fully fund education.
If that means moving a fraction of the more than $3.8 billion in the rainy day fund to the general fund to supplement the cost of public education, it should be done.
First Published February 27, 2025, 5:06 a.m.
