School funding group forms not-for-profit corporation to perpetuate its bipartisan K-12 funding formula
In the two state budgets adopted in the spring of 2021 and 2023, the Ohio General Assembly incorporated, for the first time in history, a K-12 public school funding formula authored exclusively by Ohio educators, and now that same group hopes to ensure the formula's permanent implementation.
The group, known as the Fair School Funding Plan WorkGroup, has formed a new not-for-profit Corporation, intended to become a federal tax exempt 501 (c)(6) entity, with the hope it can help to establish the formula as the “permanent fix to school funding" that has been the goal of Ohio’s educators for decades, according to Tom Hosler, veteran superintendent of Perrysburg Schools and one of the original 16 members of the WorkGroup.
Another original member, Ryan Pendleton, former treasurer/CFO of Akron City Schools, who now leads a new, innovative service arm of the Educational Service Center of NE Ohio, explains that “the formula is designed to fund specific student needs, be fully transparent, and easily modified or adjusted to address new requirements as those needs evolve over time; while being fair to schools, students and taxpayers throughout the process.
The Fair School Funding Plan was inspired by two former Ohio legislators; Republican Bob Cupp, State Senator, Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, and Ohio House Speaker; and Democrat John Patterson, State Representative, who left his long standing role as a high school history teacher to seek elective office – specifically to fix school funding.
Cupp and Patterson recruited a group of dedicated, voluntary Ohio educators, who over the last six years – with ongoing input and support from the state’s superintendent, treasurer, and school board organizations – created something exceptional: a K-12 school funding formula that is truly fair to all Ohio students, schools, and taxpayers. The first four years of a six-year planned phase-in of the formula have been included in the last two state budgets.
The Ohio Fair School Funding Plan is an inputs-based model that uses research, established best practices and thoroughly vetted professional judgment to determine the actual cost to educate a child and ensure that all of Ohio’s children are provided a high-quality, equitable educational opportunity.
The sole purpose of the new Corporation is to assure students, parents, educators, legislators, and taxpayers that dedicated Ohio K-12 educators will continue to constantly monitor, analyze, and assess the Plan’s operations to ensure that the evolving educational needs of Ohio’s youth will be met efficiently and effectively, and that Ohio’s schools and taxpayers will continue to be treated fairly in the process.
Members of the Fair School Funding Plan WorkGroup recently connected with leaders of the state’s public school districts during the annual Ohio School Board Association (OSBA) Capital Conference that took place Nov. 12-14. WorkGroup members shared information with more than 7,500 attendees about how they can help assure that Ohio’s 1.6 million students will be funded fairly now and well into the future.