Why your school district can and should have more public funding using Fair School Funding Plan
Public school spending per student should improve outcomes for our future workforce. According to Ohio Auditor of State for FY 22 the Columbus School District had 45,680 students and 113 schools. The Columbus District’s minority enrollment is 80% and students are mostly economically disadvantaged students. The district’s operating expenditures provided by the state is $18,446 per student. The Columbus City Schools are rated 2 stars. Upper Arlington School district has 6,100 students, 9 schools, with operating expenditures of $17,468 per student. While the district’s minority enrollment is 20% all students come from suburban environments and the Upper Arlington Schools are rated 5 stars. The socio-economic contrast between school districts motivates supplemental services making it possible for students from all districts to achieve.
ThebipartisanFair School Funding Plan has non-instructional categories that are funded acknowledging inner-city (and rural) schools must spend resources on issues not present in wealthier suburban school districts.
When publically-funded vouchers were originally conceived, they were intended to help low-income parents whose children were assigned to failing schools. The poverty level starts at $15,650 for the annual support of a family of one and increases by $5,500 for each additional person. For a family of four, the poverty limit is $32,150. Today voucher amounts are $6166 for grades K-8 and $8408 for grades 9-12. With the current policy families are eligible for vouchers upto 450% of the Ohio poverty level. Therefore, the annual income for a family of four can be more than $144,675 and still eligible for the full voucher amount for each child.
The two main voucher/scholarship programs offered by Ohio are EdChoice, and EdChoice-Exe. Under EdChoice, the family income must be less than or equal to 450% of the poverty level. In the recently introduced EdChoice-Exp program - “Exp” stands for Expansion Scholarship Program - there is no income limit, but the voucher amount is reduced as the income limit increases. So a family of four with an annual income of $241,125, is still eligible for an annual amount of more than $1000 per child in high school. In 2024, more than 78% of the families receiving vouchers under the EdChoice program were classified asnot low income!
According to WOSU’s All Things Considered (2/28/2024), in the FY23-FY24 school year when the EdChoice-Exp was introduced, 759 new vouchers were awarded to Columbus residents, but the Columbus school enrollment dropped by only 180 students. This implies that more than 75% of the families getting publically funded vouchers could already afford to have their children in private schools!
Publically-funded vouchers should be used only as a tool for addressing lack of quality public education and should not have the effect of weakening public education especially when federal dollars are shrinking! Vouchers, now mainly used for the richer Ohioans, have the effect of diverting public funds.
The Ohio Budget Bill for FY 26 and FY27 in the Senate continues to fall short of supporting the final phase of the Fair School Funding Plan - required by law - by more than $400m. This bill also caps how much a district can 'carryover' in its budget from year to year; carryovers are the money is left after costs are covered. Districts whose carryover is more than 30% of its operating budget would be required to refund that money to taxpayers.
While the Budget Bill does not take into consideration the current costs of educating a students, it includes an amendment that would give $600 million in bonds to owners of the Cleveland Browns to build their new stadium. The Haslams own the Cleveland Browns, the Columbus Crew, and have a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks. They have made significant political contributions to House Speakers Matt Huffman and Jason Stephens who play pivotal roles in Ohio's Legislative process today and also gave $100k to help defeat Fair Districts Issue 1 last year.
These political actions divert even more public funds that could be better applied to creating a more educated workforce and a thriving economy.
Ohio's school funding system was ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1997, but it remains a subject of ongoing debate and efforts to reform. The court's decision, in DeRolph v. State, found the system failed to provide a "thorough and efficient system of common schools" as required by the Ohio Constitution. While the court has ordered a complete overhaul, the state has not fully implemented a long-term solution to address the disparities and inequities.
In the case of DeRolph v. State, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Ohio's school funding system was unconstitutional, primarily because it relied heavily on local property taxes and led to significant disparities in educational opportunities between different school districts. The court found that the system violated the "Thorough and Efficient Clause" of the Ohio Constitution, which mandates a statewide system of common schools. The case was filed in 1991 and resulted in several court decisions between 1997 and 2002, ultimately leading to changes in Ohio's school funding.
By dropping the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan the state risks reverting back to an unconstitutional school funding system.
References:
- FY 22 Fair School Funding Plan
- WOSU
- US News Upper Arlington
- US News Columbus
