The Ohio Supreme Court has struck down Ohio鈥檚 property-tax based school funding method four times in the last 22 years. Now two lawmakers say they think they鈥檝e finally fixed it with they say is stable, customizable and transparent.
Right now, the formula starts with $6,020 鈥� which the state says represents how much it and local districts spend to educate a student in Ohio. That number goes up or down depending on property wealth and income.
鈥淭he poorest districts in the state right now get 90 percent of that paid for by the state. The wealthiest districts get 5 percent," says school funding expert Howard Fleeter.
But, of course, that鈥檚 not the final number. Money is added in by the state to help poor students and to help pay for transportation, special education, K-3 reading and career tech, and there鈥檚 money for economically disadvantaged students, gifted kids and those with limited English. There are performance bonuses, too.
Even that鈥檚 not the ultimate number provided for each student. State Rep. Bob Cupp (R-Lima) said that means the formula doesn鈥檛 work.
鈥淥ver four-fifths, 82 percent, of districts are either on a cap which limits the funding they would get under the formula or a guarantee which props up the funding they're not getting over the formula," Cupp said.
Cupp and his colleague, state Rep. John Patterson (D-Ashtabula), have been working for more than a year on a new funding distribution formula, along with more than a dozen public school officials.
Patterson said a major difference is that their formula calculates a local district鈥檚 share of education costs based 60 percent on property values and 40 percent on income. Cupp said their formula is customized based on a set of student-teacher ratios that gets smaller as students get older.
Every analysis of school funding has shown an between richer and poorer districts. Patterson said to fix that, the plan increases funding for economically disadvantaged students by 60 percent.
鈥淣ow the question is, is 60 percent enough? We didn't want to overfund it,鈥� Patterson said. 鈥淏ut we do know that is currently underfunded. So we tried to pick a figure that was practical that was explainable essentially as a place holder until a more robust study could be undertaken.鈥�
Both lawmakers admit they don鈥檛 have a definition of what 鈥渆conomically disadvantaged鈥� actually means.
The formula also emphasizes local control, which means districts can decide how to spend their money. At the same time, it seeks to make sure all low-income 4-year-olds have access to high quality preschool and to improve transportation by replacing 10 percent of buses every year.
The real question is: How much money will this distribution plan need to work? Hearings are scheduled on the plan this week, with a final rollout of costs on Friday.
Cupp said the concept needs to be discussed before a dollar figure is put on the plan, but he says it will mean more money.
鈥淲e have a pretty good idea, but we鈥檙e still working on it. We don鈥檛 want to throw a number out there until we have, so鈥�.you鈥檒l get a range on Friday," Cupp said.
The plan also includes direct funding of charter schools, instead of that money being taken from districts when students leave and enroll in charters. Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder the idea of direct funding charter schools, saying it will lead to more debate.
Teacher unions and other education experts say that they鈥檙e cautiously optimistic, since the current formula isn鈥檛 working. But advocates say lawmakers will have to commit to fully funding this idea for it to work.
