The debate over school funding continues around our state.  Throughout my time in the legislature, I have made it a priority to work toward fair and adequate funding to schools across Ohio, without increasing disparity between the high-wealth and the low-wealth districts.

In the current budget debate, it seems that property rich districts have been taking aim at lower wealth rural districts.

Many of these wealthy districts did receive a greater cut in school foundation aid than some of their poorer counterparts in this budget.

However, it is important to note that under the House version of the budget, no district in the state would receive more than a 7.6 percent cut in funding, when all resources are taken into account.

When looking at funding for school districts, I have encountered an assumption that only state foundation funding levels should be taken into account, as opposed to considering all resources.

Some of these resources include property tax rollback payments, which is another form of state support for education.

This assumption was highlighted recently in an editorial by a Cleveland newspaper columnist.  The column compared two wealthy districts that would receive about $900,000 and $1.8 million in state foundation aid in the upcoming year, with poorer districts like Trimble and Northwest Schools, who are slated to receive nearly $6.3 million $12.8 million respectively.

In order to make a fair comparison, however, all reimbursements need to be considered.  For example, these same two wealthy districts are estimated to receive approximately $3.7 million and $4.5 million in property tax reimbursements from the state.

Lower property wealth schools, such as Trimble and Northwest Local Schools, while they are receiving significantly more than the previous two schools in their foundation funding, are only receiving around $150,000 and $350,000 respectively in property tax rollback payments.

(All funding estimates were provided by the Legislative Service Commission.)

The higher wealth school districts tend to spend substantially more per pupil than the lower wealth districts.  We need to resist their lobbying for a greater share of education funding at the expense of poorer districts that are already spending less.

With that being said, I am not unsympathetic to the concerns of the wealthier districts.

However, when considering these concerns, we must take into account the future of all children, regardless of where they live.

Increasing the gap between school districts by creating further economic disparity is not good public policy.

Helping all districts with funds that are available in a win-win scenario is the best option.

The House version of the budget accomplishes this.  I hope this mindset continues as the budget process moves forward.

John Carey serves in Ohio’s 87th District of the House of Representatives, which includes eastern Lawrence County. He can be reached at (614) 466-1366, by writing to: Ohio House of Representatives, 77 S. High St., Columbus, OH 43215, or via e-mail at District87@ohr.state.oh.us.