Legislators abandon Fair School Funding, add supplements that increase disparities

New data illustrate impact by district

In FY 2026-27, Ohio’s legislature will distribute some school funding through supplements that increase disparities across economic lines, further shortchanging districts with high levels of student poverty, according to a new brief from Policy Matters Ohio.

The brief accompanies a series of district-level factsheets, many of which show that supplements increase the harm done by the legislature’s decision to abandon the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) before it could be fully implemented.

Ohio legislators abandoned the FSFP in part to pay for a billion-dollar giveaway to Ohioans making six figures or more. As a result, Ohio’s public schools will receive $2.75 billion less than they would have under the FSFP in the next two years. 

“The FSFP was developed to address Ohio’s unconstitutional and inequitable school funding system by allocating resources based on local capacity to raise revenue and the actual cost of educating students” said Molly Bryden, Policy Matters researcher and author of the brief. “Had the FSFP been fully implemented, Ohio’s public schools would have received an additional $3.04 billion over the biennium. Instead, the budget provides only $281.9 million, disproportionately benefiting wealthier districts.”

The legislature will magnify that disparity with special funding for districts with high performance ratings, many of which are already located in higher-income districts. “The problem with basing funding on school report cards is that districts’ performance ratings strongly correlate with social and economic contexts in their surrounding communities,” Bryden said. “In fact, the vast majority of students in lower-performing school districts are identified as economically disadvantaged.”

Key findings from the budget analysis include:

• The legislature cut funding for districts with very high student poverty by $34.6 million, leaving them with $570.2 million less than they would have received under the FSFP in the next two years.
• More than 60% (63.4%) of the districts that will see a funding increase have very low or low student poverty levels.
• A recent study found that Ohio had already been underfunding education for economically disadvantaged students; the 2026-27 budget makes that problem worse by changing how these students are counted. The result is a $200-million cut to Disadvantaged Public Impact Aid over the biennium.
• Though Gov. DeWine vetoed several harmful property tax changes, the Legislature’s threats to override those vetoes could further strip $203 million in local revenue from more than 200 districts.

“While it may appear that some school districts came out on top in this budget cycle, this school funding plan has no real winners,” Bryden added. “Now that the legislature has abandoned the FSFP entirely, state lawmakers wield more power to further dismantle Ohio’s public education funding in the next budget. As they do so, districts will become increasingly strapped for resources, forcing communities to choose between increasing property taxes and underfunding schools even further.”