Getting It Right! For Ohio's Future

Our Point of View

Time to take a stand

Ohioans can fix the state’s unconstitutional school funding formula at the ballot box in November. By supporting the Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future constitutional amendment, we can take a stand to make education the state’s No. 1 priority. The time is now to invest in a solution that will fairly fund high quality public education opportunities statewide, relieve local property tax burdens and shore up Ohio’s economic future.

The amendment will:

Guarantee accountability with public reports.
Identify the cost of quality education, and require the state to pay a higher portion of the bill.
Reduce the number of new local property tax levies.
Cut property taxes for senior and disabled homeowners.
Protect state funding for school facilities, local safety and services, and colleges and universities.

Ohio’s broken school funding formula punishes students and taxpayers across the state, while failing to produce the education outcomes Ohio needs to compete in a global economy. That’s why the Ohio Supreme Court has declared the formula unconstitutional four times – and this amendment is the first sound proposal put forth to fix it.

Ohio cannot afford to wait any longer to institute meaningful changes to the public education funding system. Ohio’s children deserve access to a high quality public education regardless of geography or family circumstances. Ohio taxpayers and their local school districts deserve relief from local tax levy campaigns. And Ohio public schools need fair funding, determined accurately at the state level, to have competitive education resources on the world stage.

Fixing the system

Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future puts in place the process to fix Ohio’s school funding system by reducing its reliance on local property taxes, identified as the current system’s primary flaw by the Ohio Supreme Court. All school districts would be required to provide the same fixed contribution rate of local taxation with the state funding the difference. The amendment would put the responsibility for generating per pupil investment levels needed to provide in the hands of elected and appointed officials and knowledgeable experts, with constitutional checks and balances.

The State Board of Education, with 11 elected members and eight appointed by the Governor, will conduct a biannual review of the components, programs and services necessary to provide a high quality education, plus their costs, and pass along their findings to the Ohio legislature in conjunction with the state budget cycle. The state will pay for the costs not covered by the required local funding contribution, unless the General Assembly overrides the State Board with a substitute plan adopted with a three-fifths majority in both houses. An alternate plan adopted by the legislature will still need to contain essentially the same components, programs and services.

A new nine-member education accountability commission appointed by the Governor, speaker of the House and president of the Senate will monitor education investments to determine if they are being implemented in a cost-effective and efficient manner and positively impacting student performance. The commission will issue regular reports to the public, the Governor, the General Assembly and the State Board.

Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future will:

Reduce the required local school district funding contribution to 20 mills of property or equivalent taxation in a six-year phase-in, between fiscal years 2012-2017.
Eliminate “phantom revenue” by exempting the 20 local mills from rate reduction factors, which will significantly reduce the size, number and frequency of operating levies.
Retain all existing operating millage or other equivalent forms of taxation until planned expiration, or elimination by local school district voters.
Mandate a 5 percent, plus inflationary, increase in per-pupil funding during the two initial fiscal years prior to the full launch of the constitutionally revised system.
Exempt Ohio senior citizen homeowners and disabled homeowners from property taxes on the first $40,000 of market value of their homes.
Protect state funding for school facilities, local government and higher education.

Getting It Right – now

It has been 10 years since the Ohio Supreme Court originally ruled the state school funding formula unconstitutional. Yet school districts still rely on the same flawed funding formula that forces them to make up the difference in state guaranteed funding to provide a good education, or severely compromise the local education opportunities available. Unlimited spending is not the goal. But Ohio can and should assert the rights of every child to have access to a high quality public education.

The status quo cannot continue in Ohio. Voters are increasingly weary of school tax levy requests that local districts have no choice but to pursue or cut education opportunities – including appropriate staffing and extracurricular activities. Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future seeks to implement a more stable funding process that will allow local required millage contributions to grow as local property tax valuations increase. Because this problem was created by constitutional rate reduction requirements on voter-approved school district millage, it requires a constitutional solution.

For far too long, the legislature has counted on local taxation to keep Ohio’s public schools afloat, contrary to the Supreme Court’s decisions. Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future addresses that issue.

Getting It Right – for the future

Implementing a constitutional guarantee will create a state commitment to education that will prepare young Ohioans to compete in a rapidly evolving global economy. Our state economy depends on improvements to our public education system and Ohio must act now to make the necessary changes that will keep and attract jobs. The manufacturing jobs that built Ohio’s economy continue to disappear and Ohio must provide a superior education if it is to succeed in transitioning to leader status among global competitors.

Commissioned by the Ohio State Board of Education, the recently issued Achieve, Inc. report, Creating a World-Class Education System in Ohio, concludes that the state won’t be able to compete in the global economy without substantial changes to the public education system, chief among them transitioning from the inequitable and unpredictable local property tax.

The report specifically documents that Ohio must hold schools accountable for improving efficiency, assure taxpayers that their dollars are being well spent, “redesign its funding formula to account for the true costs of efficiently educating each student” and reduce the frequency of local property tax levies – all specific goals and provisions contained in Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future.

Taking grassroots action

Getting It Right! For Ohio’s Future, supported by the 12 statewide education organizations, intends to rely on volunteer support to collect the more than 400,000 signatures required to place the issue on the Nov. 6 ballot. The campaign is actively soliciting support in every community.

We believe that presented with the opportunity to finally take action, Ohio voters will choose to make a lasting improvement to the state public education system by supporting this bold, comprehensive constitutional initiative. To learn more, including how to support the campaign, go to www.rightforohio.org.