House scraps Fair School Funding

Budget would underfund schools by $2.75 billion

The Ohio House yesterday proposed a state budget that abandons the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP), providing at least $2.75 billion less than what it will cost to educate the nearly 90% of Ohio students who attend public schools.

Policy Matters Ohio details the impacts of the plan in a new brief and series of school-district-specific factsheets comparing FSFP funding to the inadequate funding the House would provide. In addition to that analysis, Policy Matters Ohio Executive Director Hannah Halbert provided the following statement:

“The House proposal would return Ohio to the days of funding schools based on what politicians want instead of what children need. It turns back the clock on a quarter century of progress toward constitutional funding by reneging on the promise of the Fair School Funding Plan. It appears that legislators hope a meager, one-time funding increase will provide political cover for their dereliction of duty.

“The FSFP works because it is based on the actual costs of educating every student. House leadership is working backwards, starting with funding limits based on their own squeamishness about state spending.

“But Ohio has the money to meet student needs. The same budget proposal that ends the FSFP also provides a $600 million bond package to help the billionaire owners of the Cleveland Browns move their stadium. It is estimated that the state will spend about $1 billion to pay back the bonds.

“There is no surer investment in the state’s future economic prosperity than investing in the schools that educate Ohio’s kids. The House proposal takes Ohio in the wrong direction.”