Public School Funding

Every child in Ohio, regardless of their race, birthplace, or income, deserves access to a fully funded and fully resourced public school. Since 1997, our public education system has been unconstitutionally funded, leaving our schools without the funding and resources they need to serve all of Ohio's children and families. 90% of Ohio students attend public schools, but Ohio politicians are trying to gut public school funding. Rather than fully funding our public schools, our lawmakers plan to spend the money on vouchers and unregulated private schools. 

Right now, Ohio legislators are working on finalizing the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Operating Budget, inclusive of school funding. This budget must be signed into law by July 1, 2025. Implementation of the third phase of the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan is essential to ensure our schools, children, and families receive the constitutional funding they deserve.

UPDATE: The Senate's version of the budget, introduced on June 3rd, fails to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan by relying on outdated 2022 data. This would lead to severely detrimental impacts on our public schools and the communities they serve.  The bill also includes many non-funding issues that would harm Ohio families.
Budget Doc - Senate Version by Honesty for Ohio Education
See how funding cuts would impact individual districts in Ohio: ​Provided by Policy Matters Ohio

Learn how public education funding impacts student outcomes​​​
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All In for Ohio Kids Resources:

All in For Ohio Kids is a coalition that was formed in 2021 to ensure that every child in Ohio, no matter their race, zip code, or how much money their family has, can attend a great public school that prepares them for a bright future. The coalition is anchored by the Ohio Education Association, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and Policy Matters Ohio.
View the full toolkit

The Fair School Funding Plan Explained


In 2015, Senator Bob Cupp and Representative John Patterson partnered to develop a transparent, equitable, sustainable formula to address for Ohio's unconstitutional school funding system.

Read the complete Fair School Funding Plan they co-authored HERE.
Read a summary and analysis of the Fair School Funding Plan HERE.

The Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan has several key features:
  1. It uses the actual cost of education to establish the base cost for the budget, providing a more precise calculation of how to account for each local district's capacity.
  2. It ended deduction funding for charters and voucher programs that would divert funding away from local schools, subsidizing private education for some students instead.
  3. It established funding levels for "categorial aid," meaning for categories of students who would require additional resources in some way (like kids who need additional resources to get up to reading at their grade level, or kids whose families are in poverty).

The Cupp-Patterson plan was originally offered as a bill in the legislature, but instead of passing as legislation, it was written into the state budget with a six-year implementation schedule. This means that full funding, and full implementation of the plan, must be advocated for each state budgeting process. In 2023, we had completed two years of the planned six year implementation period.

​​​How are Ohio K-12 ​public schools funded?

  Ohio public schools are funded in three ways:
​
  1. Federal Government Funds: Federal funds are usually on a grant or mandated system
  2. State Funds: State funds are based on the State Foundation Formula which calculates a district's ability to raise local taxes and the minimum cost of educating a student (this funding system was ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1997)
  3. Local Support Funds: Local funds are derived from local property taxes, based on property appraisals
Taxes & School Funding
  • Funding for schools is derived from local tax sources (like property taxes) and state tax sources (like sales taxes), and a small amount (about 6% of the total budget) comes from the federal government
  • Because the state caps the amount of funding it will allocate to local districts, local districts place levies on their local ballots for their communities to vote on
  • Funding for private and charter schools is diverted from funding for local schools​
  • Homeschooling families receive a tax credit to offset education costs
  • Ohio's schools are unconstitutionally funded, and have been unconstitutionally funded for more than 25 years
  • The Ohio Constitution says the state must fund "a system of common schools"; education is a constitutionally mandated responsibility of our state government
Factors influencing school funding
  1. School Population:  Lesser monies are available to districts with disadvantaged pupils, number of free lunches, etc. The state does provide some extra money dependent on the numbers in special populations recognizing in a small way the additional costs of educating these students.
  2. Tax Collection Rate: The rate of a district’s ability to collect the real property taxes owed is often affected by the larger economy, but to some extent its population. 
  3. Commerce & Business Property:  Districts with a lot of commerce or business property can help offset the cost burden to residents. 
  4. Transportation: The state requires districts to bus all pupils, whether attending the public schools or private schools within the same parameters. State law requires all students in grades K-8 who live two miles or more from their schools to be bused. 
  5. ​Additional Factors: The state of Ohio pays $1,800 for each school-aged student living within the district. The state collects, however, $5,900 from the district for each student attending private school. Although the district still must provide transportation and learning assessments for these private school students, the state requires the district to pay an additional $4,100 per non-public school student. 
Source: Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
More information can be found at​ CHUH Public Schools

Additional Resources: