Public schools could have less property tax help under Ohio House education budget
Advocates for Ohio public education have been fighting for the so-called Fair School Funding Plan to be continued in the next state budget. But Ohio House Republicans have nixed it in their version of the state budget passed last week.
Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart, the Ohio House Finance Committee chairman, said the House’s budget proposal passed Wednesday includes a $226 million increase from 2025 public education funding amounts.
Democratic legislators and education researchers say that still leaves public school funding underfunded by billions over the next two years, with more than 300 districts only receiving increases of $50 per student.
Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget proposal funded public education through the Fair School Funding Plan model, but his budget didn’t account for inflation, leaving advocates (and the plan’s co-creator) pressing for money to cover those costs.
The Ohio House went another way, forgoing the funding model that’s been in place for the last two budget cycles and was set to see its third and final phase-in this budget cycle.
The House draft included a provision that Republican leaders said provide property tax relief.
The measure would require the County Budget Commission to lower property tax rates in school districts with cash reserves equalling more than 30% of their operating costs, which critics of the plan say would force districts to dip into their reserves.
Ohio House Republicans increased funding for private school voucher programs.That includes a maximum award for the Autism Scholarship and the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship, and the establishment of an education savings account for private school education.
House Democrats and public school advocates are against the changes.
Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, a co-sponsor of past Fair School Funding Plan legislation, said the proposed House funding model is “based not on what it costs to educate a child, but what the General Assembly decides that it feels like paying for education.”
New Philadelphia City Schools would receive $8.5 million over the next two years based on the House’s budget plan, but the removal of the Fair School Funding Plan model would cost them nearly as much, one of the district’s board members said
“When we can’t count on steady support from the state, eventually we could have to make cuts or ask voters to pass more levies — something no one wants to do,” said Jennifer Schrock, a board member and member of the All in For Ohio Kids Coalition, a public school advocacy group.
Researchers at the think tank Policy Matters Ohio said the budget “underfunds Ohio public schools by $2.75 billion over the biennium” with the removal of the previous funding model.
Policy Matters Executive Director Hannah Halbert said 323 districts in the state would see a mere $50 more per student in the next two years.
“Representatives are heading home on recess having put their names on a bill that gives Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam $600 million and Ohio kids 50 bucks,” Halbert said.
She was referring to $600 million Republicans put in the House budget to underwrite a new football stadium for the Browns’ billionaire owners.
The budget draft would establish a new system for private school voucher dollars.
In an addition not included in the governor’s proposal, the House brought in a new system for “comparing the performance data of state scholarship students enrolled at the chartered nonpublic schools with the data of similar students in nearby schools.”
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce already tracks enrollment numbers for public and private schools, along with breakdowns based on scholarship recipients. It would be tasked with continuing that work, noting total enrollment at private schools, the number of scholarships students, the type of scholarship and the the amount of state support the school received.
Applicants for the private school voucher scholarships would be required to include the school in which they were previously enrolled before applying for the scholarship.
Also a part of the data collection would be the number of students receiving various voucher scholarships such as EdChoice, EdChoice expansion and Cleveland scholarships, with the information separated by family income “as the data is available,” according to budget documents.
The Ohio Senate is now holding budget hearings and working toward its own draft, which legislators have said may be released next month.
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