School funding: Formula of calculating educational cost is under scrutiny

Yahoo

05-02-2025

Feb. 4—LIMA — Bob Cupp spent years working to fix Ohio's school funding formula.
The former House speaker from Lima partnered with Democratic colleague Rep. John Patterson to devise a new formula to calculate the true cost to educate a child and a school district's capacity to raise revenue through local taxes.
The result — known as the Cupp-Patterson or Fair School Funding Plan — is in question four years after lawmakers agreed to gradually phase in the formula through the state's operating budget, as lawmakers debate whether the state can afford it.
A persistent problem
Cupp's political career started in the 1980s when he became a county commissioner.
He won a seat in the Ohio Senate in 1985 where he remained until 2000. He returned to the legislature in 2014 after working as a judge for the Third District Court of Appeals and Ohio Supreme Court, and spent his final term in elected office as Speaker of the House.
School funding dominated Cupp's career: The Ohio Supreme Court ruled against the state's school funding model four times starting in 1997 while Cupp was still a senator.
The court gave lawmakers one year to correct the formula, which was deemed unfair to districts in poor neighborhoods where property taxes are insufficient, so a child's zip code wouldn't determine the quality of their education.
But many of the problems identified by the DeRolph case, brought by a coalition of public schools now suing Ohio's voucher system, remained when Cupp returned to the legislature nearly two decades later.
More than 500 of Ohio's 610 public school districts had their state funding capped or guaranteed, penalzing districts with growing enrollments, so Cupp and Patterson formed a working group to devise a new formula.
Their plan tied funding to enrollment and each district's capacity to raise its own funding through local taxes, using property values and resident income to determine how much state aid a district needs.
The plan attempts to calculate the true cost to educate a child in each district, with additional funding made available for students living in poverty, relying on special education and other factors.
Lawmakers approved the formula through the state's operating budget in 2021, with the intent of phasing new funding in gradually over three budget cycles, but did not pass standalone legislation for the plan.
Cupp did not return requests for comment.
"I'm hopeful the next two General Assemblies will keep it intact," Cupp told The Lima News when he retired from the legislature in 2022. He didn't see a conflict between his plan and private school vouchers either. "There's no reason both can't be available," Cupp said at the time.
'A marketing technique'
The formula is under scrutiny again as lawmakers draft their next operating budget, with the expiration of federal pandemic aid and expansion of private school vouchers creating new financial pressures.
Fellow Lima native and House Speaker Matt Huffman described the formula as "unsustainable" when the General Assembly convened in January.
Huffman criticized the plan as it took shape through the budget four years ago, while he was Senate president.
"Legislatures don't make decisions for six years," he said. "The concept that there's a three-part phase in of some plan that isn't legislatively approved and hasn't been approved is, for the most part, a marketing technique."
Huffman said the legislature has approved "six or seven" school funding formulas over the last two decades.
This session will be no different, he said. "People are going to say wait a minute, these schools have these unique problems, you need to edit this," Huffman said.
Gov. Mike DeWine introduced his proposed budget Monday, which calls for the full implementation of the Cupp-Patterson plan. The budget will now be considered by the House and Senate, which have until June to reach an agreement.
Lima schools Superintendent Jill Ackerman said she's disappointed but not surprised to learn the legislature may not implement the final phase of the Cupp-Patterson plan.
"It will force districts to go back to taxpayers to ask for more money," she said.
Lima schools is planning to cut $700,000 from its budget this year with the expiration of federal pandemic aid, though Ackerman said she hopes to accomplish the cuts through attrition.
Ackerman and other superintendents say the expansion of private school vouchers, which are now available to any child regardless of where they live or how much their parents earn, are to blame for the state's pending budget troubles.
The state spent nearly $1 billion on the program last school year.
"When you take $1 billion out of the budget and put it towards private schools, yes there is going to be less money for public schools," Elida schools Superintendent Joel Mengerink said. The district, which is also looking to cut at least $1 million from its budget this year, would receive nearly $1 million a year in additional funds under the Cupp-Patterson plan.
"We simply can't afford more cuts or it will have an even more serious impact on kids," Mengerink said.
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