State budget to include K-12 school funding overhaul

COLUMBUS >> A bipartisan school-funding plan in the works for years is back in Ohio’s upcoming state budget, under a compromise approved Monday by a joint legislative committee working out final details of the $75 billion spending plan.

The Republican-controlled House had included the education proposal known as the Fair School Funding Plan in its version of the budget passed in April. The plan, supported by multiple education advocacy groups, is meant to bring more reliability to annual school funding payments to districts.

The GOP-controlled Senate stripped the plan from its budget version approved earlier this month, saying its own proposal provided more money than the House plan over the next two years.

The Senate also included a plan that for the first time would require the state, not individual districts, to pay charter schools directly.

The budget compromise announced Monday keeps the direct payment to charter schools. The full House and Senate were expected to approve the budget later Monday.

The final version of the budget also includes $250 million for broadband access trying to boost connections to high-speed internet in underserved areas.

The state estimates 300,000 households and at least 1 million residents across Ohio lack broadband.

The Senate had removed the broadband funding after Senate President Matt Huffman said there weren’t enough details on how the money would be spent for the Senate to support it.

Among other details in the final version of the budget, the plan:

• Provides a 3% personal income tax cut for Ohioans, a compromise between the House plan, which proposed a 2% cut, and the Senate, which wanted a 5% personal income tax cut. Democrats oppose the cut, saying it will benefit the wealthiest Ohioans.

• Allots $170 million over two years for the state’s H2Ohio clean water initiative.

• Declares Juneteenth a state holiday in Ohio.