Ohio school funding formula

As the school year gets started for many students — whether they attend public, private or charter schools— it might be a good time to pause and look at how those students' schools are impacted by state funding in Ohio.

The Ohio Senate passed the state budget bill Wednesday which sets up a likely conference committee where the House and Senate must agree on a final spending measure to send to the governor.

A battle is coming over the school funding formula overhaul introduced in the Senate’s version of the budget yesterday – which blows up the one proposed in the House that school groups and education advocates supported.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are sponsoring a bill that would let all students go to any private school in the state.

Sen. Matt Dolan says lower taxes are good for the growth of the economy.

A coalition of progressive groups is coming together to support a bipartisan school funding plan that’s been put into the budget after languishing in the state legislature.

The new school funding bill is similar to the one that passed in the Ohio House last year but a few tweaks have been made to it.

The Ohio legislature is expected to overhaul the state’s school funding formula by the end of its lame-duck session this month, the most recent attempt to address a system declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court four times. The state’s highest court found the existing system of relying on property taxes for school funding unfairly favored districts with higher property values. That system, in conjunction with Northeast Ohio’s history of redlining, disproportionately hurts majority-Black communities and school districts.

A school funding overhaul that’s been in the works for five years passed the Ohio House by a huge margin and is on its way to the Senate.

The term-limited sponsor of a plan to overhaul Ohio’s school funding system says he’s hopeful it will pass before he leaves the House at the end of this month. The measure could be voted on in a House committee Wednesday.