Franklin County schools get less money under Senate plan
Most Franklin County districts fare worse under the Senate school-funding plan, compared with what the House passed in April as part of the two-year state budget.
But Sen. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, sent a direct message to the three senators representing most of Franklin County: Things aren’t so bad.
Columbus would get $9.5 million less over two years, and seven other districts — Hilliard, Westerville, Groveport Madison, Reynoldsburg, Hamilton, Canal Winchester and Gahanna — each would lose at least $700,000 when compared with the House proposal.
Overall, Franklin County schools would get $21 million less in total funding under a Senate plan that statewide would spend $29 million less on basic student funding than the House-passed budget.
Gardner, who took the lead role in crafting the Senate school-funding plan, sent a memo last week to Franklin County senators who might not have been pleased to see how their districts were faring under the Senate budget.
Gardner highlighted that under the Senate plan, Franklin County districts are still scheduled to get $61 million more from the state funding formula over two years, about 23 percent of the entire state increase. That support, he said, jumps to 27 percent when accounting for the loss of tangible personalproperty tax reimbursements that impact some districts.
That’s double the increase of Cuyahoga County, and more than triple what Hamilton County districts would be getting.
“A $61 million net increase in countywide foundation support is substantial versus the rest of Ohio,” Gardner wrote.
The Senate budget would reduce the number of schools statewide seeing funding cuts from 2017 levels, but it also would lower the Housepassed 5.5 percent maximum annual increases that districts could get. Most Franklin County districts are capped, so reducing it to 3 percent lowered their funding.
“This isn’t the ideal budget for Franklin County, but statewide, it could be worse,” said Sen. Kevin Bacon, R-Minerva Park, who got Gardner’s memo along with Sens. Stephanie Kunze, R-Hilliard, and Charleta Tavares, D-Columbus. “We’re doing the best we can with what money we have.”
The Senate started with a budget that wasn’t balanced, so the majority looked for spending reductions, Bacon said. “It’s a tough year, so we’ve been doing everything we can to make it as painless across the board as possible.”
Districts with enrollment growth of at least 3 percent over the past two years could get up to 6 percent annual increases. That would include 46 districts statewide, eight in Franklin County. Of those, only Whitehall and Bexley would get funding formula increases larger than 5.5 percent.
In his memo, Gardner notes that no Franklin County district loses basic formula funding when compared with the current year. However, when considering tangible personal-property tax reimbursements, Worthington would lose nearly $2 million and Grandview $750,000.
Columbus schools, Gardner wrote, would have a net gain of more than $81 million from 2013 to 2019, or 31 percent.
Districts might not be getting all they want out of the funding formula, but Kunze said she is hoping to see other amendments get into the budget, such as easing the phase-out of personalproperty tax reimbursements, easing graduation requirements for the class of 2018, and providing districts such as Upper Arlington, New Albany and Olentangy at least as much state money per pupil as is going to private schools.
“If there are other general things we can do to lend help to the suburban districts, I’m supportive of that,” she said.
The full Senate is likely to vote on the budget Wednesday. From there, the House and Senate will work out their differences in a joint conference committee before June 30, the end of the fiscal year.