Here’s the Ohio House funding plan for public school districts
The Ohio House incorporated an ambitious plan into its proposal for the state budget that would completely redo how the state funds K-12 public education.
It would give $1.88 billion more to Ohio’s public schools over six years. But the big lingering question was how much would this new plan to give to individual districts.
Finally, we have an answer.
Lawmakers released a spreadsheet Tuesday showing how much money school districts would receive for each year of the state’s two-year budget.
See how much your school district would get below.
Some districts, like Columbus City Schools, would get a lot more money. The district would go from $158 million currently to $271 million if the plan was fully phased in after six years. That’s a 70% increase in their state funding.
But other districts, like Lakewood City School District in Cuyahoga County, would get less. The spreadsheet shows them losing about $1 million annually, dropping from $17.3 million in fiscal year 2021 to $16.2 million by fiscal year 2027.
Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, cautioned parents and educators about taking the numbers for 2027 as gospel. They are based on a number of assumptions, including significant dips in enrollment during the pandemic.
“Fifteen thousand students didn’t enter kindergarten because of COVID …,” Sweeney said. “If a district does end up losing enrollment, they will get less down the road.”
But lawmakers and districts won’t know what those numbers look like until the fall. The important takeaway, in her opinion, is that “not one school district is losing anything in what we have appropriated for the next biennium.”
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