The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) have just issued a report that details the sad fact that most states have begun the new school year with more cuts to funding.

States have made steep cuts to education funding since the start of the recession and, in many states, those cuts deepened over the last year. Elementary and high schools are receiving less state funding in the 2012-13 school year than they did last year in 26 states, and in 35 states school funding now stands below 2008 levels — often far below.

Ohio has fared particularly poorly under current Governor John Kasich, with the 7th largest per student cut in the nation

The “cuts-only approach” hasn’t worked, and many municipalities will have to raise revenue or cut needed services, said Jon Shure, the center’s director of state fiscal strategies. “What you’re seeing is that the jurisdiction-of-last-resort is now the one that has to honestly confront the situation because the buck has been passed.”

We're now seeing tax increases in local government to offset the local budget raid perpetrated by the Governor to balance his own budget. A website, www.cutshurtohio.com details a county-by-county breakdown of effects the budget has had. For example, in Cuyahoga county - where Cleveland schools reside, the cuts dwarf the $65 million budget hole the district is trying to plug

With rising tax revenues and the ability to close loopholes, there is no reason the Governor and his legislature cannot reverse this harmful trend, and use the next biennium budget to increase funding for Ohio's public school to adequate levels.

S.B. 5 is a jobs killer. It will only weaken the Middle Class by destroying good, working-class jobs that families and communities depend on.
S.B. 5 will hurt businesses. Stores, gas stations, restaurants and other merchants in communities across the state will be forced to lay off workers. Or worse, they’ll have to close their doors, because Middle Class Ohioans will no longer be able to afford to patronize those establishments.
Public Employees are our neighbors. They are firefighters, cops, teachers, prison guards, snowplow drivers, and social workers, to name a few. But they are also coaches, athletic and band boosters, church members, volunteer firefighters and charitable givers.
Public employees are taxpayers. Public employees pay their taxes just like everyone else. Every payday, they pay the same percentage of income tax as every working Ohioan.
S.B. 5 won’t balance the budget. Even if EVERY state employee was fired, it would barely save the state one-fourth of its gaping $8 billion budget deficit.
S.B. 5 is part of a larger agenda and public workers are scapegoats. It’s a fact! S.B. 5 won’t balance the budget. It’s clear that anti-worker forces are using this to harm the Middle Class and kill jobs and the union rights they depend on.

New School Year - New Cuts in Funding

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