School-funding quicksand demands action

When it comes to addressing fairness in funding public education, the Ohio legislature acts like quicksand: The better the solution, the more likely that solution is to slip into oblivion.

I’ve been following the public education funding riddle since the 1980s. Thanks to the Fair School Funding Plan (fairschoolfundingplan.com/about), adopted in 2021, we have never been closer to a funding formula that provides for the two essentials of fair funding: 1) adequate state spending and 2) equitable distribution of funds, so that living in a lower-income community does not prevent access to a quality education.

Public school funding is a partnership between local school districts and the state. A core element of the partnership is the “base cost.” The legislature establishes the basic spending level that must be available for every student, regardless of where they attend a public school. Both state and local sources cover that cost.

The Fair School Funding Plan is effective because it uses the actual cost of education to define the base cost, and it puts more emphasis on the income level of taxpayers in local communities when determining local capacity. The capacity measurement defines the amount the local community can afford, and the state share covers what it cannot.

Gov. DeWine’s school funding proposal for the biennial state operating budget, as set out in House Bill 96 (www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb96), was celebrated as the final step in implementing the Fair School Funding Plan. Sadly, the rhetoric and reality don’t match.

Property values have spiked since the last budget, so communities appear to have greater wealth. HB 96 uses these new capacity numbers but fails to update the cost side to reflect inflation. This makes it appear that education costs are cheaper and that local communities can afford to pay more. This double distortion reduces the state share. Even more of the burden is shifted to local property taxes, aggravating the fundamental failure of the system that the Fair School Funding Plan was designed to solve.

As written, HB 96 will reduce state spending on public schools by $103.4 million compared to this year, while increasing spending on vouchers by $265.4 million. According to economist Howard Fleeter’s analysis of the budget, Cleveland Heights-University Heights will be among the 343 school districts, of Ohio’s 611, that will receive less money in the first year of the biennium.

We will receive close to $12 million this year, but that will drop by about $280,000 in the first year of the new budget and go up to $12.49 million in the second. This is less money than we receive from the federal government, even though education funding is a state responsibility!

When state spending goes down, local taxpayers pay more. For the system to be fair, the state should play a larger role. The current state share of public school funding is 38.4 percent. It’s set to drop to 35 and then 32.2 percent. Heights schools already have minimal state support, and it will drop from 13 to 10 percent. It's one of 131 districts that will receive the lowest amount of state aid allowed.

Without the state spending more, the state-local partnership will not work. Lawmakers heap new demands on public schools but contribute a pittance, while they treat private schools with unlimited generosity.

Failure to amend HB 96 would be cynical and undemocratic, and expensive for communities. Local partners will revolt. The partnership could collapse. The majesty of the public system is that schools are everywhere and include everyone. What kind of society will we have if they are allowed to wither and die?

It will take 50 state representatives and 17 state senators to get us out of the quicksand. Let your lawmakers know that they must!