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Columbus BOE Supports Comprehensive Revision of School Funding
November 23, 2020 -- The Columbus City Schools Board of Education (BOE) unanimously approved a resolution at its November 17, 2020 meeting supporting current legislation to revamp how public schools are funded in the state.
Senate Bill 376 and House Bill 305, known as the “Fair School Funding Plan,” creates a more equitable and easy-to-understand distribution mechanism for determining a district’s state share of calculated funding. The new plan will combine property and income taxes and calculate a district’s wealth level to determine a school district’s capacity to raise its fair share for education. Disadvantaged students will receive more help than in previous funding models if the proposed legislation becomes law.
Currently, state funding for public education uses a model that has capped the District for about the past decade, resulting in a shortfall of over $90 million last fiscal year.
“The current funding allocation model is unworkable and untenable,” said Dr. Erik Roush, Policy and Government Affairs Supervisor with Columbus City Schools.
The new proposed legislation would create a new funding formula that starts with a “base” amount reflecting the actual cost of educating a student. That base funding formula would also consider teachers’ salaries, professional development, students’ social and emotional needs, career readiness, and technology.
“The proposed formula is more understandable than the current funding model,” said Roush. “The formula’s components are logical and evidence-based, with figures being derived from actual experience and costs.”
Board of Education Member Eric Brown has worked on school funding for the last 50 years. He praised state legislators on this latest plan.
“This is the first real attempt by the Legislature to figure what it costs to educate a student using real data,” said Brown. “This is the closest we’ve come to getting it right in decades. This plan goes a long way towards eliminating some of the current school funding problems.”
Columbus City Schools Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Stanley Bahorek echoed his support for the new education funding plan.
“This plan does not pit one school district against another,” said Bahorek. “Instead, the state’s school districts will work together on school funding using a much clearer formula.”
State lawmakers are trying to get this new school funding formula that impacts the state’s 610 school districts passed before the end of the year. For the last 23 years, the state’s current school funding plan has been found unconstitutional four different times by the Ohio Supreme Court.