June 20, 2013

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Senate budget cuts schools by $533 million, compared to four years ago

June 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

After cutting schools by $1.8 billion in his first budget, Governor Kasich and state lawmakers are currently drafting a school funding plan for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. Information released by the Governor and legislature has been carefully constructed to show schools receiving increases in 2014-2015, but that is only when compared to the deep cuts of 2012-2013.

We have previously released our calculations of the full, four-year impact of Gov. Kasich’s budget plan on districts, now we look at the Senate plan, adopted earlier this month and currently the subject of a House-Senate conference committee. The bill must be finalized and signed by the Governor before July 1.

Research Highlights

  • In the Senate version of the budget, school districts get $532.7 million less than they received in 2010-2011
  • Three in four — 436 in total — school districts will continue to have fewer resources than in 2011

View the list of districts, with 4-year impact of Kasich budgets.

Or see our complete spreadsheet showing changes to each individual funding stream since 2011.

And review our March analysis of cuts to district in the Governor’s original introduced budget.

Methodology

Innovation Ohio used the following revenue streams for comparison: State Aid, State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, Tangible Personal Property Tax Reimbursement for operational and non-operational costs, and Killowatt-Hour Reimbursement for operational and non-operational costs. The Ohio Department of Taxation had the State Aid and SFSF figures from FY10, and the TPP and KwH payments for FY10-FY11 and FY14-FY15. The FY11 State Aid and SFSF figures came from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission’s calculation from the previous budget cycle in 2011. The State Aid figures came from the Ohio Senate’s District-by-District simulations produced for its version of the budget.

Filed Under: Education, Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

Ohio’s charter schools spend far more on administration than public schools

June 14, 2013 By 1 Comment

Governor Kasich frequently claims to embrace school funding policies that put more money in the classroom. So a new Innovation Ohio Education Fund analysis released today may prove instructive, as it looks at how likely Ohio traditional public and charter schools are to do just that.

The IOEF analysis finds that:

  • Traditional public school districts in Ohio dedicated 11.5% of their spending to administration
  • The average charter spends over 28% on administration
  • The best charter schools spend 20.5%, while the worst spend nearly 40% on administration
  • On a per pupil basis, the worst charter schools in Ohio spend six times as much on administration [Read more...]
Filed Under: Education, Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station, Reports

Closing of Abortion Clinic Foreshadowing Budget Impact

June 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Last week the Center for Choice in Toledo shut its doors. The abortion clinic, one of two abortion clinics in the Toledo area, had been open since 1983.  It was forced to shut its doors after the center was unable to obtain a transfer agreement with any of the area hospital systems.  The University of Toledo canceled negotiations in April in order to keep the University out of controversy.  Capital Care Network, the other clinic which performs abortions in Toledo, will lose its transfer agreement with the University of Toledo Medical Center in July.

If the language currently in HB 59, the Ohio budget, is enacted this scenario will likely be mirrored across the state, greatly restricting women’s ability to make medical decisions for themselves.  As we’ve mentioned before, HB 59 currently contains language that requires abortion clinics to have transfer agreements in place with local hospitals. The Senate took this language one step further and added language that would prohibit clinics from have a transfer agreement with any public hospital or from entering into a contract with any physician who has privileges at a public hospital. As we are seeing in Toledo, this language will have a real impact on women’s access to abortions in Ohio.

The budget is now headed to conference committee, which gives the legislature one last chance to remove this language from the bill. After the bill moves through conference committee it will head to Governor Kasich’s desk where he will have the option of using a line-item-veto to remove this dangerous language.

The Toledo Blade reported that Kasich was asked if he would veto this language at a budget event yesterday and  said the following:

“We’ll have to see how this proceeds through the House and the Senate conference committee and have just got to wait and see how it goes, then I’ll make a decision as to whether I think it goes too far or doesn’t, but keep in mind that I’m pro-life.”

You can let Governor Kaisch know how you feel about this issue by calling his office at 614-466-3555.

Filed Under: FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station, Women's Watch

Pay Raises for Kasich Appointees?

June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A quick read of one of the Legislative Services Commission’s budget comparison documents this past weekend reminded me of a provision in the massive, two-year spending plan that hasn’t received much attention.

Current law provides for five senior employees to be involved in policy implementation and development at each state agency.  These positions are unclassified, meaning there is no competitive process to apply for them, they merely serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority – in this case the Governor or his cabinet members. They may even be employees who are paid by an agency but work directly out of the Governor’s office.

A provision in Kasich’s two-year budget — retained by House and Senate lawmakers — increases the amount these appointees can be paid from $102,960 to $134,056 annually: [Read more...]

Filed Under: FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

Ohio anti-woman budget attracting national attention

June 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

politicians-make-crappy-doctors-227x300Yesterday, in a party-line vote, Republicans in the Ohio Senate adopted a two-year budget that includes a number of policy provisions aimed at limiting women’s constitutional right to abortion, and in the process, depriving funds to family planning organizations including those with nothing to do with abortions.

(See how your Senator voted on the budget)

House Bill 59 passed 23-10 and contained language that would:

  • Prohibit abortion clinics from entering agreements with public hospitals or with doctors affiliated with public hospitals. These agreements to transfer patients in medical distress are required by State law, so without them many clinics will be forced to close.
  • Block funding for rape crisis centers from going to organizations that refer women to facilities that provide abortions.
  • Effectively blocks federal family planning funds from going to family planning providers, putting them last in a prioritized list of recipients.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station, Women's Watch

Senate claims of increasing school funding ring hollow

June 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Since Senate Republicans announced their school funding plan last week, they have consistently touted it as having increased school funding, going as far as calling the increase unprecedented.

But the fact is, it’s only an increase when you squint your eyes and do some mathematical gymnastics.

When you directly compare the plans — something that requires backing out transportation and career tech funding (which the Governor did not include in his budget numbers) — the Senate plan actually provides $80 million less funding than the Governor’s initial proposal. The only way it counts as an increase is if you compare it to the House plan, which cut $200 million from the Governor’s plan. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

Ohio Senate Budget Amendment Could Shut Down Abortion Clinics

June 4, 2013 By 1 Comment

Today, the Senate Finance Committee accepted an omnibus amendment to the Ohio Budget. Not only did it retain language that would defund Planned Parenthood, it included other amendments which restrict access to abortions so much that they could be challenged in court.

Previous versions of the budget contained language targeting abortion providers,  requiring so-called ambulatory care clinics to have transfer agreements in place with local hospitals. Clinics without transfer agreements in place that do not get a waiver from the Ohio Department of Health would be forced to close, leaving many communities in Ohio without a single provider. Today’s Senate amendment took this one step further and outright prohibits an ambulatory care clinic from having a written transfer agreement with any public hospital or from entering into a contract with any physician who has privileges at a public hospital.  This would greatly restrict  women’s access to abortions in Ohio.

The Senate also added the language from HB 108 to the Budget. This bill, initially intended to create the Rape Crisis Trust Fund and provide additional funding to Rape Crisis Centers, was amended to include language which would prohibit Rape Crisis Centers from referring patients to entities that provide abortions. As we previously reported, there are laws already in place preventing public dollars from being used to fund abortions. It hardly seems right to limit treatment options that are available to women who have experienced a sexual assault.

The bill now moves to the full Senate for a vote on Thursday before a conference committee decides which provisions will remain when the bill hits Governor Kasich’s desk.

 

Filed Under: Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station, Women's Watch

Is the Ohio House pulling a Mourdock?

May 31, 2013 By 2 Comments

The Ohio House Judiciary Committee recently heard testimony on HB 108 and voted the bill out of committee. HB 108 was originally intended to create the Rape Crisis Trust Fund, a fund to aid rape crisis centers throughout the state.  While this cause is a worthy one, the committee made changes to the substitute bill which calls into question the true motivation of the bill.

According to Gongwer

Under the substitute bill, government-based or nonprofit centers that refer rape victims to abortion clinics would be ineligible to receive the funding, except in cases of medical emergency. ”Can you tell me why the General Assembly would be inserting itself into rape counseling?” she [Representative Pillich] asked the sponsors, Reps. Nan Baker (R-Westlake) and Kirk Schuring (R-Canton).

Adding these provisions seems unnecessary.  There are several laws already in place which prevent public dollars from being used to fund abortions  In 2010, in Ohio, 3,500 forcible rapes were reported to the police. This only includes rapes that were reported, more likely occurred and went unreported. Does it seem right to limit the treatment options that are available to women who have experienced this type of trauma?

Has the Republican party learned nothing from Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock in 2010? Both men came under considerable fire after making incorrect and controversial statements regarding rape. The next thing we know the Ohio Senate will be suggesting, as Mourdock did, that pregnancy from rape is “something  that God intended.”

 

Filed Under: Innovation Station, Women's Watch Tagged With: ,

Republican bill would prevent young immigrants, raised in America, from getting drivers licenses

May 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Back in February we blogged about how Ohio public safety officials were denying driver’s licenses to young immigrants who had recently been issued work permits under a new program announced by President Obama last year. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program  allows young people who came to the United States without authorization to apply for a work permit and social security number if they: 1) came here before the age of 16; 2) have been in the U.S. for the last six years; 3) are either in school, have graduated from high school, or have served in the armed forces; and 4) have not been convicted of any serious crimes and are not a threat to national security.

For several months Ohio BMV officials would say only that they were studying the issue internally, all the while denying licenses to individuals who the federal government had explicitly said were allowed to live and work in the United States. Finally, after Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told the Columbus Dispatch that he thought Ohio law as written did include DACA recipients within the driver’s license eligibility requirements, BMV officials relented and began allowing DACA recipients to apply for driver’s licenses on March 29. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovation Station Tagged With: , ,

Ohio Senate Education Plan Falls Short

May 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Ohio Senate leaders unveiled the chamber’s education funding plan. Touted as containing a large funding increase, the Senate budget does indeed increase funding slightly when compared to the House plan, but still falls far short of replacing the $1.8 billion in cuts contained in the last two-year budget. As a result, schools will once again be forced to operate on less state funding than they had in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

The fate of individual districts continues to demonstrate priorities in Columbus that favor the rich over everyone else.

Nearly 40% of the state’s poorest rural districts will see no increase compared to the last budget, when districts received steep cuts. Meanwhile, about 85% of the state’s wealthiest districts see funding go up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station
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