COLUMBUS, Ohio — Last year, the Ohio Legislature passed a school funding bill that would make sure districts all across the state would get their fair share. Now, a year into the current budget cycle, there are some additional concerns about the funding.
What You Need To Know
- School districts are hesitant to spend state dollars
- Uncertainty in funding makes it so that districts are reluctant to hire people
- A clear commitment to fund schools in the future would be “the perfect deal”
While it took decades to get the bill passed and money to districts that would provide relief, Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, said the legislature fell short in its goal.
“The fundamental problem with what the legislature did in a budget last year was that, while they adopted a formula, they didn’t fund it,” DiMauro said. “The amount of money that was put into it was only about one-third of what is needed.”
The bill will release funds in phases over a few budget cycles, but DiMauro said that remains uncertain.
“Unfortunately, they didn’t commit beyond this budget cycle,” DiMauro said. “There was only about one-third of the funding that’s needed that was put into this budget. So there’s still a great deal of uncertainty about what happens next.”
With that in mind, even though districts received federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, money is not being fully spent overall.
“What we hear is that school treasurers around the state don’t have certainty about what’s going to happen to state funding, and so they’re a little bit reluctant to use onetime federal dollars,” DiMauro said. “If the state were more clear in its commitment to fully fund the plan, it would be a perfect deal, because you have the down payment for that long-term funding coming from the federal government.”
As districts hold on to dollars, they’re also putting pauses on hirings and investing in new programs, a challenge because, as in other markets, the education sector has a lot of openings waiting for people to fill them.
It also comes while many teachers are looking to retire or leave the profession early, hinting at a possible “educator crisis” looming, according to DiMauro.
“Uncertainty in funding makes that even worse because districts are reluctant to hire people,” he said. “Then you create a real problem with large class sizes and unmet needs.”
