Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts
In early May, after it became clear that COVID-19-driven business closures and growing layoffs had already resulted in a precipitous drop in tax receipts, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine cut the current Ohio budget by $775 million, including $300 million from the state’s 610 school districts. The Governor slashed money school districts had already budgeted. The cuts are not for next year; instead the Governor eliminated dollars that had been promised for the current fiscal year ending on June 30, in less than two weeks.
But last week, just prior the Ohio Legislature’s summer recess, Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan, whose family owns Cleveland’s Major League baseball team and who represents some of Ohio’s wealthiest exurban school districts, sneaked an amendment into Ohio House Bill 164, an education bill the Ohio Legislature passed and sent to Governor Mike DeWine for his signature. Dolan’s amendment would restore funding to many of the state’s wealthiest school districts, those with the greatest capacity to replace state dollars by passing additional local property tax millage.
The Dayton Daily News‘s Jeremy P. Kelley reports: “A late amendment to the bill will restore $23 million in funding to school districts mainly in wealthy communities. House Bill 164 ensures that between state cuts, CARES money and “offset payments” in this bill, no school district ends up getting less than 94% of its original state funding amount for 2019-20.”
On Tuesday, cleveland.com’s Rich Exner reported: “Legislation approved last week and awaiting the governor’s signature would restore part of the funding previously cut to 70 Ohio school districts, including 36 suburban districts in the Greater Cleveland, Akron area.” Dolan’s amendment, “limits cuts to any one district to no more than 6% from original allocations for CONTINUE READING: Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts | janresseger
