BUDGET BRIEFING: K-12 Education

Innovation Ohio has released a 1 page budget briefing covering the main issues contained in the Governor's two year budget.

The Basics

Governor Kasich’s two-year budget includes additional funding through the state’s formula that funds school districts and charter schools, adding about $700 million more to the amount spent on education. However, the increase is offset by continued reduction ($236 million) in reimbursement payments to districts for lost Tangible Personal Property and Public Utility taxes, as well as increases to charter schools and transportation funding, which is wrapped into the formula funding now.

The bottom line is this: even with the modest increases, more than 55 percent of Ohio school districts will see less direct state aid than they saw in the 2010-2011 budget. Despite a record-sized budget of $72 billion, the net increase for education is only $464 million, which remains below inflationary growth levels. The increases generally happen in poorer districts with the cuts coming from wealthier districts, but there are plenty of examples of poor districts seeing cuts (Symmes Valley) and wealthy districts (Green Local in Summit County) seeing increases.

By the Numbers

• $464 million Net increase to schools out of a record-sized budget of $72 billion (GRF) +$700 million Increase to schools, -$236 million Cut in Tangible Personal Property and Public Utility Reimbursements
• 323 Number of districts seeing cuts in the 2015-2016 school year compared with 2014-2015
• 290 Number of districts seeing cuts in the 2016-2017 school year compared with 2015-2016
• $100 Annual per pupil increase for districts and charters in each year of the biennium
• 339 Number of districts that have less direct state aid than they did 6 years ago

Significant Policy Changes

Cracks Down On Charter Sponsors, But Not Charter Schools. Some of the changes are helpful, but they nearly all focus on the sponsors of charter schools instead of the schools themselves.

Keeps The Straight A Fund. Continues the Straight A Fund at $100 million a year.

Increases Funding For Edchoice. Expands the expansion of EdChoice vouchers from last year, more than doubling the amount and moving funding to the GRF rather than lottery money.

More Than Triples The Number Of Spots For Early Childhood. Increases to 17,000 the number of students in early childhood programs. Would allow some charters to have preschool kids. Still accounts for barely 1/3 of all preschool students.

Reduces Testing To No More Than 2 Percent Of School Time And Gives Flexibility To Districts For NonReading Tests In Early Grades.

Increases Auxiliary Services And Administrative Cost Reimbursement Payments To Private Schools. Again increases the amount of public funds going to private schools.

District-by-District Funding Impacts of Ohio Charter Schools

Innovation Ohio has just released a report looking at the impact the Governor's budget will have distrcit funding when increased charter school payments are factored in.

The Basics
Gov. John Kasich's proposed two-year, $72 billion state budget provides only a modest overall net increase in education funding of $464 million, with fewer than half of Ohio school districts (301 of 609) seeing increased funding in 2017.

However, when funding to charter schools is factored in, one in three of those districts will see their increases erased. After charter school deductions, just 200 out of 609 Ohio public school districts see actual funding increases in year two of the proposed budget.

In the last year for which data is available, $380 million in state funding was redirected from higher-performing traditional public school districts to charter schools with poorer performance grades on the state report card. Over a biennium, that’s $760 million going to worse options for kids, or two-thirds more than the Governor’s proposed $464 million increase in K12 education funding.

By the Numbers

• 301 Districts receiving an overall increase in FY 2017 compared to FY 2015
• 101 Districts where the increased funding is less than the amount the district lost to charter schools in the 2013-2014 school year
• $760 million Minimum amount of money sent to worse performing charter schools from higher performing districts over a biennium, based on 2012-2013 school year data
• $464 million Net increase to school districts through the state’s foundation funding formula in this budget

Their full report with tables showing specific losses to each distrcit can be seen here.

Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors?

Ohio doesn't have a simple plan to weed out its bad charter schools.

The state instead has an indirect strategy.

It puts agencies known as "sponsors," called authorizers in most states, in charge of overseeing charter schools, of fixing struggling charters and of closing the ones that can't be fixed. We'll be hearing a lot about Ohio's 69 sponsors this year, since both Gov. John Kasich and House leadership have made them the focus of charter reform plans.

What are they, exactly? Who are they? And why is Ohio just not cleaning up the charter school mess on its own?

We talked this week to Gov. John Kasich, state Superintendent Richard Ross, and State Sen. Peggy Lehner, who heads the Senate Education Committee, about the state's focus on sponsors.

Kasich and Ross said sponsors are the best way to push for improvements at charter schools quickly, without overburdening the Ohio Department of Education. And the governor said having sponsors overseeing the schools will prevent a future governor from undermining them.

Lehner, a Republican from Montgomery County, thinks Kasich's approach may be too narrow. She said she hopes the Senate will come up with changes for other parts of Ohio's charter system this spring.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)

Charter School Failure Leaves State, Students Scrambling

The controversial sponsor of eight northeast Ohio charter schools is going out of existence and the state is trying to help the schools come up with alternatives.

Last summer, the state accused the Portage County Educational Service Center of trying to open a charter in Cincinnati. That would have violated a rule that prohibits sponsors of poor-performing charter schools from opening new ones.

The center says it’s been unfairly targeted. But Ohio Department of Education spokesman John Charlton says the state is just doing its job.

“What we’re here to do is to make sure every student in the state is getting a quality education. And if you’re not holding up your end of the deal, then we’re going to question why you’re not doing that.”

Besides sponsoring the charters, the Portage Educational Service Center provides public school districts with joint purchasing, curriculum development and other services. But all 11 public districts in the county have decided to contract with someone else, forcing Portage to dissolve, making it the first educational service center in the state to do so.

Ohio school district winners, losers in John Kasich's new budget plan

Details of Kasich's two-year budget proposal show that about half of the state's 610 school districts would receive more money from the state than they currently are receiving.

In Cuyahoga County, 14 districts would receive more money in 2016-2017, and 17 would receive less, according calculations from data released Wednesday by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management.

The Northeast Ohio Media Group and The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. calculated the changes using both core aid from the state and money the state provides some districts to help make up for some revenue lost by the elimination of a tangible personal property tax and some utility taxes.

Jim Lynch, a spokesman for the governor, however, said no district would encounter a large decrease, once both local and state money are considered. The maximum loss would be 3 percent in the first year from both sources.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)

Kasich budget trims aid to over half of Ohio's public school districts

More than half of Ohio's public school districts would get less money from the state under Gov. John Kasich's proposed education budget as the administration seeks to adjust the funding formula to better reflect district incomes.

Those cuts come even as Kasich's $72.3 billion, two-year budget increases state foundation funding by $700 million over two years.

The state budget director and superintendent both said the spending blueprint doles out state education aid under a formula adjusted to better reflect a district's wealth.

Budget director Tim Keen told state lawmakers a formula that's ineffective in getting dollars to the neediest districts is unacceptable.

Kasich's budget also reduces districts' state guarantee and resumes phase-out of two tax streams they've received, reducing state payments by $235 million over two years.