All in for Ohio kids - Fully and fairly funding Ohio’s public schools - Executive Summary April 2021

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

Executive Summary April 2021 outlines how Ohio’s public school funding system undermines educational opportunity across districts. It explains the shrinking state share, insufficient revenue from an upside-down tax structure, and funding freezes that kept support tied to outdated formulas. The summary also covers how charter schools and private voucher deductions divert both state and local resources. It proposes the Fair School Funding Plan, which would raise and redistribute state aid based on actual education costs and improve equity and predictability.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary April 2021

Education

Ohio’s system hurts different districts in different ways

The Fair School Funding Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY APRIL 2021 Education All in for Ohio kids: Fully and fairly funding Ohio’s public schools Wendy Patton Great public schools provide opportunity for children, their families, communities and the entire state. All children, regardless of ZIP code, race or family income deserve to be educated in a fully and fairly funded school. The framers of Ohio’s constitution required the state to provide a “thorough and efficient education” for all students. Yet for many years Ohio lawmakers have fallen short. Even as policymakers have required public schools to do more, they allowed state aid to be eroded by inflation and diverted to charter schools and voucher programs for private schools. Public schools have increasingly relied on local resources, which causes unequal funding and quality across districts. This is because our state’s school-funding system relies heavily on property taxes, which advantages wealthier districts where property values are higher. The dependence on local resources affects communities in different ways. Educational costs may rise in one community with changing student needs, and local levies may not keep up. Caps on state aid may increase the need for local resources in other communities. Charter schools may divert both state and local resources from meeting the needs of the public school district. The Ohio Supreme Court found this system unconstitutional a quarter century ago, but state lawmakers have failed to correct the problem. But a solution may be at hand. The Fair School Funding Plan, moving forward in the Ohio General Assembly as House Bill 1 and proposed for inclusion in the House budget bill for 2022-23, would increase state aid, enhance equity in distribution and create predictability in funding across the hundreds of public school districts in the state. Ohio’s system hurts different districts in different ways The current state school-funding system fails students in different school districts for different reasons, depending on the unique circumstances of each community. Four major problems with the current system include: ü Dwindling state share: To equalize educational quality across districts, the state must provide the majority of funding for public schools. Today the state pays a smaller share of overall school funding — 44. 6% — than at any point since 1985. ü Insufficient funding: Ohio’s upside-down tax code doesn’t generate enough resources to fully and fairly fund education, forcing local governments to step in. The cost of education may rise in a district — say, if the district is doing a better job of addressing needs that were previously unmet, or if the needs of students changed. Often residents vote for levy dollars to meet those needs. In some communities, increasing POLICYMATTERSOHIO.ORG local property tax rates does not create the revenue necessary to provide a quality education because of declines in property values. ü Band-Aids and patches: The state’s funding of schools is not based on the actual cost of educating students. Lawmakers froze school funding at 2018-19 levels that were based on arbitrary increases from a formula last calculated in 2007. The school funding system in place before the freeze was so broken that the majority of districts did not receive the level of funding that the formula called for. Some districts saw limits in the growth of state aid (their aid was capped) because state lawmakers prioritized tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations rather than fully funding all districts according to the formula. Other districts benefitted from a funding guarantee, which was an acknowledgement that the state’s flawed funding formula did not provide sufficient funding needed in those districts. Because most districts never received the amount of funding that the formula called for, districts couldn’t count on their state aid from year to year, which made planning difficult and hiring risky. ü Diversion of funds: Ch

FAQs

为什么俄亥俄州的当前公立学校资助体系会导致各学区之间的不公平？

因为州内资助体系高度依赖地方财产税，导致不同地区因财产价值差异而获得不同的资金与教育质量。此外，州援助被通胀侵蚀并被转向特许学校和私立学校券项目。

当前体系主要存在哪些问题？

摘要列出四个主要问题：州份额减少（state share dwindling）、资金不足（insufficient funding）、按补丁式处理且缺乏基于实际成本的机制（band-aids and patches），以及资金被转移（diversion of funds）。

Fair School Funding Plan 如何改善资助公平性与可预测性？

该方案基于教育的实际成本，提升平均的州人均资助并更重点支持处于贫困境况学生比例更高的学区。同时，它将取消提高学区对地方收入依赖的特许与券扣减，使资金规划在多年内更稳定。

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel