- More than half of the money going from better performing Ohio school districts to worse performing charters goes to 6 statewide E-Schools
- 98% of all the children attending charters that performed worse than their feeder districts on all the state’s report card measures went to the same six statewide Ohio E-Schools – at a cost of $72 million
- Local Ohio taxpayers have had to subsidize $104 million of the cost of Ohio E-Schools because students in E-Schools receive so much more per pupil funding from the state than would their local public school.
Budget Briefing: Proposed House Changes
![middleclass](http://innovation.precisionnewmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/middleclass.jpg)
- SB5 Revisited? Several provisions limit workers’ rights to collectively bargain and punish workers who seek that right.
- In: Tax cut that favors those at the top. Out: Tax relief for working- and middle-class families.
- Mixed Bag for Schools: Adds funding for school districts, but expands voucher programs that sends public funding to private schools.
- Targets the Poor: Opens the door to stiffer work requirements for public assistance, regardless of whether work is available.
- Impacts Communities: Phases out vital revenue for communities, punishes cities over traffic cameras and privatizes county jails.
News Release: The School Funding Squeeze
IO ANALYSIS: THE SCHOOL FUNDING SQUEEZE
Factors that squeeze the value of state aid to schools and what can be done to change it
COLUMBUS – Innovation Ohio, a progressive policy think tank, released an analysis that examines how over a decade of income tax cuts and increased funding to charter schools have squeezed school funding in Ohio. The report describes how the value of state aid to local schools has been diminished and what the state legislature can do right now to fix it. “We must alleviate the school funding squeeze that has been created by years of perpetual tax cuts and careless charter school spending,” said Innovation Ohio President Keary McCarthy. “In addition to needed charter school reform, we should immediately invest in high-quality schools for our students, not more tax cuts that favor those at the top.” Innovation Ohio Education Policy Fellow Stephen Dyer previewed this analysis before the Ohio House Finance, Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee yesterday evening. Dyer urged the committee to “strengthen the proposed charter accountability measures it is considering and commit to a meaningful funding formula for Ohio’s schools.” The Innovation Ohio analysis found that:1. Over the last ten years, Ohio has been investing up to $3 billion annually in tax cuts for the rich instead of high-quality schools for our students. 2. Since 2011, state aid has dropped below 50 percent forcing local revenue now paying for the majority share of the public education funding mix. 3. When factoring in lost revenue to charter schools, education spending as a share of the budget drops to a historic low of 23 percent. 4. In the 2016-17 budget proposal, the percentage of local school districts that face funding cuts jumps from 51 to 67 percent when subtracting the amount of state aid that goes to charters. 5. In too many cases, state funding to charter schools reduces the amount of the total per-pupil funding available to students in local public schools, even with their local revenue.The immediate fixes suggested by Innovation Ohio include using a portion of the revenue ($4.5 billion) for income tax cuts to instead increase state aid to schools by $1 billion; reducing the cost of new levies for local taxpayers by reinstating the 12.5 percent property tax rollback; base charter funding on the actual cost to educate a charter-enrolled student; and fund charters directly instead of driving that state aid through local schools districts. Read the Innovation Ohio analysis: The School Funding Squeeze
-30-
Media Contact: Keary McCarthy, 614-425-9163IO Analysis: The School Funding Squeeze
![Screen Shot 2015-03-04 at 3.39.59 PM](https://innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Screen-Shot-2015-03-04-at-3.39.59-PM-300x203.png)
1. Over the last ten years, Ohio has been investing up to $3 billion annually in tax cuts for the rich instead of high-quality schools for our students. 2. Since 2011, state aid has dropped below 50 percent with local revenue now paying for the majority share of the public education funding mix. 3. When factoring in lost revenue to charter schools, education spending as a share of the budget drops to a historic low of 23 percent. 4. In the 2016-17 budget proposal, the percentage of local school districts that face funding cuts jumps from 51 to 67 percent when subtracting the revenue that goes to charter schools. 5. In too many cases, state funding to charter schools reduces the amount of the total per-pupil funding available to students in local public schools, even with their local revenue.Read the full analysis: IO Analysis – The School Funding Squeeze 3-5-15
KnowYourCharter.com: Analysis of Proposed Charter Legislation
Yesterday, KnowYourCharter released an analysis on the introduction of charter legislation HB2. The report gave a general summary of what the bill includes along with a provision-by-provision analysis that gives an in-depth look at the good and the bad of the new legislation on the charter school system.
The report states that this legislation is the start of much needed charter legislation, but there is still much more room for reform. HB2 begins the necessary steps towards strengthening the laws on charter sponsors to ensure that charter school reform works to benefit Ohio’s students and taxpayers.
You can view the entire analysis here and find more information on The Ohio Charter School Accountability Project by visiting the KnowYourCharter website.
In addition to strengthening this reform, KnowYourCharter outlined three core components necessary for real reform:
- Accelerate the process for real reform
- Ensure that charter schools are subject to the same public records laws and financial accountability standards as any public entity
- Fund charters in a way that does not penalize local public schools
Budget Briefing: Funding Impacts of Charter Schools
With a very modest net increase in school funding overall, just 301 school districts — fewer than half — are expected to see an increase in Gov. John Kasich’s proposed state budget. However, when factoring in the cost of charter schools on local school districts, one in three of those districts will see their proposed funding increases erased.
In our latest budget briefing, we break down the impacts of charter school funding on each district and show that even fewer school districts then were originally suggested will see funding increases as result of Gov. Kasich’s education funding plan.
Download the briefing and district-by-district table to see what the impacts are to your local school district:
- Budget Briefing: District-by-District Funding Impacts of Ohio Charter Schools
- District-by-District Table: Proposed FY2017 District Funding Change vs. FY 2015, With Impact of Annual Charter Deductions
Budget Briefing: K-12 Education Highlights
Governor Kasich’s budget proposal adds $700 million to schools, but the amount is offset by cuts in reimbursements for lost taxes and increased deductions for charter schools.
Key points:
- Despite a record-sized budget of $72 billion, the net increase in education spending is just $464 million, which is below inflationary levels.
- More than half of Ohio school districts will see less direct state aid in 2016 than they received last year.
- 55% of Ohio school districts will receive less money now than they did six years ago.
Download our briefing on K-12 education proposals in the Kasich budget.
Ohio bill bad for teachers, great for charters
![classroom2](https://innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/classroom2.jpg)
- Eliminates the state’s $20,000 minimum teacher salary for bachelor’s prepared teachers. This would allow teachers to be paid less than someone working the McDonald’s grill.
- Allows Dropout Recovery charter schools (that graduate as few as 2 out of 155 students in four years) the ability to collect money for GED candidates. It also makes these schools eligible for federal funds for these adult literacy programs.
- Allows these Dropout Recovery charter schools to enroll students up to 29 years of age (up from 22) for diploma or GED programs at a cost to taxpayers of $5,000 per student (pro-rated for how long they’re in the program). The 2014-2015 cost is capped at 1,500 students, or $7.5 million.
- Allows Teach for America teachers to be certified to teach in Ohio as long as they carried a 2.5 grade point average in college (regardless of major), pass a state exam in the area they’d be teaching and complete Teach for America’s 5-week summer training program. Teach for America teachers are recruited to go into school buildings with the greatest challenges. And this bill will now allow them to be paid less than $20,000 a year.
Five School Funding Facts All Ohio Voters Need to Know
As voters head to the polls, it’s worth looking back at how the past four years have been for public education in Ohio. Here are our Five School Funding Facts All Ohio Voters Need to Know:
- Traditional public schools, which educate 90% of Ohio’s kids, now receive $515 million less state funding than before Gov. Kasich took office. The Governor’s first two-year budget cut $1.8 billion from schools, and he and his legislative allies failed to restore all of that in the budget that followed. Three out of four school districts receive less state funding today than they did four years ago.
- Ohio’s school funding system remains “unconstitutional” because of its over-reliance on property taxes. Although the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled four separate times that Ohio’s school funding system is unconstitutional, Gov. Kasich and state legislators have not only refused to fix the problem, but their most recent state budget devotes, according to the non-partisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission, the smallest percentage of overall state spending to schools since FY 1997 — the year before the first Supreme Court ruling.
- The cost of local school levies has jumped 34% under Gov. Kasich. To offset state funding cuts, local taxpayers have been forced to pass levies raising 34% more new operating money than was required just four years ago. And thanks to the state’s elimination of the 12.5% property tax roll-back, those levies have already cost local taxpayers $10 million more than they otherwise would have.
Charter school funding has increased by 27% and charters now receive more state money per pupil than do traditional public schools . While the Governor and his allies in the legislature have slashed state funding for traditional public schools, they simultaneously increased state funding to privately-run charter schools by $193 million, even though many have performance and graduation rates that are worse than urban school districts. In fact, nearly 1 out of every 4 state dollars paid to charters since their inception have gone to poorly performing charters operated by David Brennan or William Lager who, together, have contributed over $5.4 million to Republican candidates and causes.
- Private school vouchers have doubled under Kasich. State funding for vouchers at private schools (over 90% of which are religiously affiliated) has risen from $99 million the year before Kasich took office to over $200 million this school year. In the past four years, the original rationale for vouchers (to allow desperately poor children to escape “failing” public schools in a few urban districts) has been turned on its head. Today, middle class kids from districts rated “excellent” receive private school vouchers. And since voucher money is deducted from the amount public school districts would otherwise receive, the end result is that taxpayers are now subsidizing religious and private school educations at the direct expense of the traditional public schools attended by their own children.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- …
- 25
- Next Page »