· November 28, 2012

Fallout from Kasich Public Education Cuts Will Continue

The president of the Mount Healthy Board of Education wrote a piece for the Cincinnati Enquirer today outlining the school system’s dire financial position and the likely need to seek help from local voters in the form of higher taxes:

With the failure of our recent operating levy, the Mount Healthy City School District is facing severe reductions for the 2013-14 school year. Elimination of extracurricular activities (i.e. athletics and music), additional reduction of staffing and further reduction of busing are all under consideration. We have not made a decision when to place another operating levy on the ballot, however we have little choice but to do so, or become bankrupt and under state control. Funding of public schools by the state of Ohio has been ruled unconstitutional four times by the Ohio Supreme Court. To date, the state Legislature has chosen to ignore the court and not correct this issue. Until the Legislature does, districts rely primarily on local tax money for operating expenses.

Read the rest here. In the last state budget, Gov. John Kasich and the GOP Ohio General Assembly cut $1.8 billion from Ohio public schools. Mounty Healthy’s schools lost nearly $2 million as a result of those cuts.