Nearly half of Ohio’s 610 school districts will lose funding under the budget proposed this week by Gov. John Kasich, and 73 won’t get any more money than they got this fiscal year.
Ohio schools have been losing students for the last few years, and Kasich’s budget director Tim Keen says this budget reflects that.
“If you’ve lost an appreciable number of students, why should we continue to pay you the same amount of money that we did previously?”
The highest percentage loss for any school district is 5.6%. The state has also reduced what it will pay for school transportation. Kasich’s budget boosts public school spending by $200 million, or about 1%.
The budget plan includes a 17% income tax cut and increases in the state sales tax, in the taxes on beer, wine, cigarettes and the oil and gas drilling tax. State lawmakers are likely to make changes.
