The Statehouse debate: Should the state help pay for a new stadium in the first place? If “yes,” how? By selling state bonds or, Gov. Mike DeWine’s idea, by boosting Ohio’s 20% sports-gambling tax to 40%, and using some of that money for other Ohio pro-sports venues.
Meanwhile, still in play is how much the proposed state budget will earmark for Ohio’s 600-plus public school districts.
That’s crucial, because what public schools, who educate almost 90% of school-age Ohioans, don’t get from the legislature they’ll try to find somewhere else. (Looking at you, Ms. and Mr. Homeowner.)
There’s a perfectly sound template for funding public schools, the Cupp-Patterson fair school plan, named for former House Speaker Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican, and former state Rep. John Patterson, a Democrat from Ashtabula County’s seat, Jefferson.
The legislature passed the Cupp-Patterson plan in June 2021 as part of the 2021-23 state budget. Among those voting “yes” on that budget, thus for the Cupp-Patterson plan, were then-Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, and the current (2025-26) session’s Senate president, Napoleon Republican Rob McColley.
In 2021, legislators’ vow was that Cupp-Patterson would be phased in over six years, with the final two years to start this July 1. But GOP leaders – including Huffman, this session’s House speaker – are shutting down Cupp-Patterson. Reason: They say Ohio can’t afford the level of school aid Cupp-Patterson would require in the next two years.
But: Legislators have plenty of money for Ohio’s school voucher (“scholarship”) programs, which spend state tax dollars to help Ohio parents send their children to private schools.
Voucher spending has exploded. The non-partisan Legislative Service Commission reports that Ohio – with the General Assembly’s say-so – spent $395 million for vouchers in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020. Total voucher-spending skyrocketed to $961 million in the year that ended last June 30, a 143% increase.
So: There’s enough money, likely ($1 billion-plus next year) to subsidize private schools, but not enough to achieve statewide fairness in funding public schools?
Next time homeowners see yet more school-levy requests on their ballots (and they will), it likely won’t be their school boards’ fault. It’ll be the General Assembly’s.
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Budget-bill wording proposed by Ohio’s House, now pending in the Senate, would wreck a bipartisan, 40-year-old budget formula (the Public Library Fund) that has provided Ohioans everywhere with great public libraries.
Voters this month signaled their strong support for libraries at May 6’s primary, passing all 12 library levies on the ballot, including levies for Butler County’s MidPointe <ok> Library System; the Troy-Miami County Public Library; and, in Preble County, Lewisburg’s Brown Memorial Library.
If you’re an Ohioan who loves his or her public library, it might be very shrewd to send emails or letters, or make phone calls, to your Ohio General Assembly member. Ask her or him to protect Ohio’s time-tested and nationally applauded library funding mechanism, the Public Library Fund – and, yes, perhaps add a P.S. saying you’ll be keeping an eye on budget roll-calls.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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