Senate offers new plan to pay for Ohio schools

(The Center Square) – Ohio Senate Republicans revealed their plan to overhaul the state’s education funding formula as part of their two-year budget proposal, calling it rational and sustainable.

“The Senate took a deep dive, peeling back the layers of the current funding mechanism, to determine a base cost of education,” Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said. “This plan provides a new foundation that provides reliability to districts and accountability to taxpayers. Folks who are running schools, taxpayers and the people using the schools are parents and their students – what they need most, what they want most really, is a system that is predictable, that’s reliable and certainly funds the schools in a thorough and efficient way as the constitution wants.”

Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, said the formula is based on teachers and meets the Senate’s two key factors: preparing children to enter the classroom and putting teachers in front of students who are instrumental in development.

“Teachers are the key to a successful education, and this plan starts by funding teachers,” Dolan said.

Dolan said 80% of the current state and local funding is spent on teachers, with the average teacher in Ohio making more than $72,000 annually in salary and benefits. With a student-teacher ratio of 20 students per teacher, the base cost per student in the state is $3,622 a year.

When teacher professional development, building administration and maintenance, student support and district administration is added, the base state cost per student rises to $6,110.

If passed, the state also directly will fund charter school enrollment, rather than sending money to the student’s home district and leaving the responsibility to those districts to pass along funding.

“What we really want to do is sort of stop the conversation of who’s paying what for what and simply say for people who want to choose a different school which they think is better, the state will pay that directly,” Huffman said.

The plan differs significantly from the House’s plan, which was developed over years, passed earlier this year and could mean an additional $2 billion for education over a six-year phase-in.

“The difference is our plan is it’s sustainable and can be paid for, not only in the next two years but in the following years,” Dolan said. “It’s fair and equitable, and it actually has a rational basis on how we fund our schools. If you are a school treasurer or superintendent, you can now rely on a formula for what you will receive in the coming years.”

The Senate proposal keeps Ohio school funding tied to property taxes, while the House version based a district’s local capacity on 60% property values and 40% resident income.

Dolan said the Senate plan would mean an additional $75.9 million for schools in the upcoming fiscal year and increases the following fiscal year. Districts likely are to receive more funding than they are now, except for urban high poverty districts, where, Dolan said, many parents decide to move their children to other districts or charter schools.

“Taxpayers won’t be paying for those students not in the district,” Dolan said. “We want to make sure the money is actually flowing to the districts that have those students in them.”

Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, an 18-year educator, tweeted the House’s school funding plan is bipartisan and contains a transparent, predictable and sustainable funding formula.

“It received the support of educators, advocates and community members. None of this is true about the plan proposed by Senate Republicans, which was created behind closed doors with zero input and vetting from public school stakeholders, including taxpayers, and which could have huge unintended consequences. As we all know, where there is a will, there is a way to fund the solution,” Fedor tweeted Tuesday.

Huffman said the House plan eventually would put the state back in the situation it is in now, forcing cuts.

“Each year we know that the cost of education will go up. My concern with the House plan is in four of five years we are right back where we’ve been with an increase of spending and or cutting in spending,” Huffman said. “That model is not a good government model. This actually provides more money to local school districts but it’s actually more predictable which is why we think it’s a superior product.”

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