Saturday Stats

$2.75B: Amount by which the budget proposed by Ohio House leadership would underfund public schools in the next two years. The proposal abandons a quarter-century of progress toward fair school funding, sending Ohio back to the days of funding schools based on what politicians want instead of what children need. We explain the impact in a new brief, and highlight the harm done to individual districts in a new series of factsheets. There is still time to tell your state legislators to protect public education for all our kids!

$5M: Amount of funding for pediatric cancer research that House leadership cut in its budget proposal. That is one of the more egregious examples of how the House budget targets Ohio’s children and moms. We list the lowlights in our recent press release, with plenty of links to research that shows how the House could do better by all Ohioans. Add your name to the call for a People’s Budget, and let our leaders know what we demand from them.

1: Number of income-tax brackets Ohio will be left with if state leaders pass HB 30. That means teachers, home health aides, nurses, and warehouse workers will be taxed at the same rate as billionaires. Of course, if you factor in sales tax, etc., it’s not the same rate at all: Legislators have spent the last 20 years ensuring the wealthy pay a far smaller share of their income in taxes than the rest of us.

609: Number of public school districts in Ohio. Every single one of them would benefit from a funding formula based on the real cost of educating every student — like the one in the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP). To see the impact of the FSFP on your district (and all the others), check out our new FSFP Explorer tool, part of our work with the All In For Ohio Kids campaign.  

4.7%: Ohio’s unemployment rate in February. That’s 0.1 percentage points higher than in January. The federal unemployment rate increased by the same relatively small amount. Inflation also remained fairly stable, falling 0.2 percentage points. Economists warn this may be “the calm before the storm,” as we wait to learn the impacts of federal spending cuts and a new regime of almost unprecedented tariffs. Keep an eye on JobWatch for all the indicators you can stomach.

PMO History: Policy Matters was crucial to reinstating collective bargaining rights for 350,000 public-sector workers in 2011: Despite strong opposition — including testimony from founding Executive Director Amy Hanauer — the legislature passed SB 5, severely limiting collective bargaining for public employees. We provided research and analysis on the benefits of bargaining for Ohio communities for a broad labor-led coalition. Policy Matters’ board chair at the time, Communications Workers of America District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen, was also a key leader in the campaign that became a fight for good jobs and strong communities. The coalition collected a record-breaking number of signatures to put a referendum on the ballot, and Ohio voters ultimately repealed SB 5 by a large margin (62% to 38%) in November.

Action items

Tell your state legislators to protect public education for all our kids!

Add your name to the call for a People’s Budget, and let our leaders know what we demand from them.

Follow r/OhioBudget to keep up with all the latest state budget news.

Learn more about the impact of the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate the Dept. of Education: Join Red Wine & Blue for What’s up with this Executive Order? April 8, 7PM-8PM, Zoom. Register here.

Attend The Spot Youth Empowerment Organization’s Job Search Extravaganza. April 17, 2PM-5:30PM at the East Cleveland Public Library: 14101 Euclid Ave., East Cleveland. Learn more and register here.