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

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 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

Report: Ohio schools cutting back in wake of state budget reductions

April 30, 2013 By 1 Comment

Policy Matters Ohio has released its annual survey of how districts are coping with state budget cuts. Not surprisingly, districts are cutting way back. Coupled with IO’s release last week that took a look at the statewide total ask for new operating money at the local level — an amount that’s up to $1.3 billion since May 2011 — and it’s clear that the decisions at the state level are having consequences locally.

Just a few examples of the cuts being made, according to the Policy Matters report.

  • Eighty-four percent said they reduced or froze compensation;
  • Eighty-two percent said they reduced staff;
  • Fifty-seven percent cut materials, supplies, textbooks or equipment;
  • Forty-three percent reported larger class sizes;
  • Twenty-three percent had reduced course offerings;
  • Twenty-two percent introduced pay-to-play for extracurricular activities, or reduced extracurricular offerings.

For those who think districts should make cuts before asking for additional local revenue, it’s clear that they’ve already been doing that. Clearly, few opportunities remain to make up for cuts through “efficiencies” given that four-fifths of districts have already reduced staff and benefits. The options that are left mean fewer resources in the classroom where it hits kids directly, or new tax levies on the ballot.

In essence, this research proves the obvious: state budget cuts mean cuts to services and higher taxes at the local level.

Policy Matters also noted in its work that if Ohio had simply kept pace with inflation since the DeRolph case was dropped by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2002, Ohio’s kids would have $1.2 billion more in state money than they would in the last year of this budget as currently constituted. That’s fewer cuts, lower property taxes and better-educated kids.

How, exactly, can one be against all that? Perhaps it’s time some in Columbus were asked that question.

Filed Under: Education, Innovation Station

Student Voting Amendment Could Cost Ohio Universities $272 Million

April 29, 2013 By 1 Comment

In an amendment to the state budget, Ohio Republicans recently advanced a measure that could have a serious chilling effect on Ohio’s public universities, depriving them of up to $272 million in annual tuition payments for efforts made to help students vote. The amendment makes out-of-state students eligible for in-state tuition if an institution issues a letter or utility bill to serve as proof of address for voting.

By law, individuals are eligible to register and vote after they have lived at their address for 30 days. But it can take much longer for an out-of-state student to be considered an Ohio resident for tuition purposes. Colleges typically require students to remain in Ohio for at least 12 months without support from out of state before becoming eligible for in-state tuition. For this reason, the budget measure could effectively deprive Ohio universities of four years or more of nonresident tuition currently charged to those students.

When voting, Ohio voters must show a valid driver’s license or proof of the street address at which they are registered. For students living in dorms, phone and bank statements are typically mailed to a P.O. box. For this reason, many institutions issue letters or zero-balance utility statements that can be taken to the polls to confirm a student’s address.

Forcing Ohio’s public universities to charge in-state tuition to all students would deprive them of a major source of additional revenue. In the wake of $250 million in cuts to higher education support in the last budget, Ohio’s public universities can hardly afford to eliminate the out-of-state surcharge without making significant cuts or increasing tuition to make up the difference.

Innovation Ohio calculated the potential revenue impact of the amendment to universities. Limiting our analysis to the 13 main four-year campuses, we estimated the number of out-of-state students paying tuition surcharges up to $15,408 per year and found that Ohio’s public four-year universities stand to lose as much as $272 million annually from the change. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Fair and Open Elections, Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

Kasich cuts mean $1.3 billion in “new money” requests for schools

April 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

On May 7, voters in 62 school districts across Ohio will go to the ballot to consider requests for $147 million in new operating money as a result of the continued erosion in state support for education. Here’s a list of districts on the ballot.

Combined with previous new money levies for schools on the ballot since the first Kasich budget — which featured a $1.8 billion reduction in education funding — the May issues means that Ohio voters will have been confronted with over $1.3 billion in requests for new operating money from school districts statewide in just over two years.

The levies are part of an ongoing tax shift in which the state reduces support for schools and local government in order to fund hardly-noticed tax cuts at the state level. Last week, the Ohio House adopted much of Kasich’s latest proposal to further cut the state income tax while providing less for schools than they received four years ago. The average taxpayer will see a reduction of less than a dollar a week in state taxes, while local taxes for schools, safety forces, roads and other services continue to go up.

Press release

Spreadsheet of all 62 levies on the May 7 ballot.

Our earlier analysis of school levies since May, 2011.

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

Kasich Cuts Mean $1.3 Billion in New School Levies Since May, 2011

April 25, 2013 By 1 Comment

For Immediate Release: April 25, 2013
Contact: Dale Butland, 614-783-5833

 

62 “NEW MONEY” SCHOOL LEVIES ON MAY BALLOT
Kasich Budget Cuts Cause $1.3 Billion in School Levies Since May, 2011

Columbus — Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, released a spreadsheet today showing that voters in 62 different school districts will be asked to approve “new money” school funding levies next month. If approved, the levies — none of which is for replacement, renewal or construction — will raise $147 million.

As a direct result of the $1.8 billion in school funding cuts approved by Gov. Kasich and the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature, local taxpayers have been asked to approve 393 school levies representing $1.34 billion in new operating money since May, 2011. Levies representing $492 million in new operating funds have passed.

Said IO President Janetta King:

“Given the nearly $2 billion in education funds that Gov. Kasich and his allies slashed from our schools, is anyone really surprised that local levies are growing like mushrooms?

“In district after district, school boards, superintendents and other administrators have done everything they can to cope with the cuts. They’ve laid off teachers, frozen wages, increased class sizes, reduced academic course offerings, increased sports participation fees, consolidated purchasing and taken dozens of other steps to save money. But now they have no alternative but to ask taxpayers for help.

“Innovation Ohio has warned about this from the very beginning. By cutting taxes primarily for the wealthy at the state level, Gov. Kasich and the Republican-controlled legislature have merely pushed the need for tax increases down to the local level.

But Ohioans aren’t stupid. They know a shell game when they see one. They know we can’t continue to fund our schools and local governments through an endless parade of local levies. And sooner or later, they’re going to hold Gov. Kasich and his allies accountable.”

Filed Under: Education, Press Releases

House makes changes to education policy in budget amendments

April 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Today, the House Finance Committee adopted its final amendments to the state’s two-year budget, incorporating dozens of new amendments, many of them around education.

Highlights:

  • As we noted earlier, the bill now mandates abstinence-only sex ed.
  • Limits districts to spending gifted aid on gifted programs, effectively resulting in another $160 million cut to districts. since the state won’t replace the gifted money for districts.
  • Lets homeschoolers participate in the state’s early college entry programs (though it’s not clear if the money will come from district of residence or not)
  • Allows e-schools to get Career-Tech money. It remains to be seen how you can teach woodworking remotely.
  • Attempts to fund preschool for individuals below 200% of poverty with $5 million given to public or private entities. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Education, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

Ohio Republicans propose restrictions on sex ed that promotes “gateway activity”

April 16, 2013 By 15 Comments

Today, Republicans on the Ohio House Finance Committee voted to adopt changes to the two-year state budget that will significantly restrict the teaching of sexual education in the state, mandating an abstinence-only approach.

According to a description provided by the Committee Chairman, Representative Ron Amstutz, the measure would:

prohibit the teaching of sexual education coursework that endorses non-abstinence as an acceptable behavior or promotes sexual gateway activity. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Featured Items, Healthcare and Human Services, Innovation Station, Women's Watch
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