By Susan Tebben
The newest state budget bill being considered by the Ohio legislature now includes an overhaul of public school funding decades after it was deemed unconstitutional.
Among budget changes such as tax cuts, the Ohio House picked up the public school funding formula changes that were introduced in their own bill at the beginning of the year.
The budget bill increases yearly funding for education by $1.8 billion and would phase in changes over the course of six years, just as was planned in the most recent bill, and in the original bill language from the last General Assembly.
House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, was one of the originators of the public school funding formula now a part of the proposed budget.
The funding overhaul sought to finally put to rest constitutionality issues the Ohio Supreme Court found with the state’s distribution of education funding. The state’s high court found that the state relied too much on property taxes, which impacted impoverished areas.
The new funding formula would change the property tax ratio and focus more on individual district needs. The last capital budget included money for studies to suss out the true education cost for districts across the state.
The bill introduced in the last General Assembly died before receiving a floor vote, but was reintroduced in the current GA, with two new cosponsors.
Sponsors of the individual bill previously said the billion-dollar price tag could be funded without a tax increase.
Gov. Mike DeWine specifically chose not to address the funding formula in his executive budget proposal, the starting point for legislators in putting the state budget together.
The governor’s budget proposed $13.1 billion for schools, including $1.1 billion in wraparound funds in an effort to return the education budget to pre-pandemic levels, but not add to the formula.
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Also from Ohio Capital Journal:
DeWine rules out additional restrictions as covid variants spread
Even with rising levels of vaccination, coronavirus cases are starting to surge in Ohio. The increase seems largely due to a faster-spreading variant spilling over the border from Michigan, but Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday wouldn’t call for increased restrictions in either state.
The faster-spreading B.1.1.7 variant is playing a big role in fueling a rise in coronavirus cases in 38 states. At 47,000, the United States on Thursday saw the greatest number of hospitalizations from covid since March 4.
Michigan is a particular hotspot, with 10,000 new infections on Tuesday and a death rate that was nearly triple what it was a month earlier.
The hotspot is crossing the border, with Ohio’s northernmost counties having the highest rates of new coronavirus infections. Statewide, the rise also continues, with new cases reported Thursday 8% above the 21-day average and hospitalizations — a lagging indicator — up 81%, at 181. READ MORE
Police, teachers org urge more training for armed teachers
The Fraternal Order of Police and the Ohio Federation of Teachers both stood in opposition to a bill that would allow for personnel to be armed in schools.
As they did for a previous bill that didn’t make it through the legislature, the state’s FOP chapter said school resource officers are the smarter option, rather than allowing lesser training and a more dangerous role for teachers and staff.
“Officers are taught that going into any situation, you are bringing in a gun that can be used against you,” said Mike Weinman, a retired police officer who serves as director of government affairs for the FOP.
Weinman spoke during a House Criminal Justice Committee hearing in which House Bill 99 received its third hearing. READ MORE
