by Nicole Piscitani • Feb. 7, 2025
Gov. Mike DeWine announced his last executive biennial budget on Feb. 3, 2025. The budget is for fiscal years 2026-27 and, due to term limits, DeWine will not seek reelection. The release of the executive budget starts Ohio’s legislative process, and it is important to note that while DeWine’s budget starts the process, the legislature largely crafts the finalized version.
DeWine’s past budgets have focused on kids, as does this one. As it pertains to the school-funding formula, the budget proposal would continue the phase in of years five and six of the base cost component of the Fair School Funding (FSF) formula. When the FSF formula was created, a six-year phase-in was developed to balance the increased spreading. During those initial hearings, the General Assembly was concerned about the implementation cost.
One element of the formula that wasn’t included in DeWine’s budget was updating the base cost inputs. The inputs currently used in the formula are from fiscal year (FY) 2022. The current FSF formula requires that legislators update the inputs in every biennial budget. The FSF formula relies on a balance that includes base cost and state share data. The state share property and income data are updated annually. School funding is a state and local partnership. Without updating the inputs, the formula will become unbalanced and result in an overreliance on property taxes and a higher local share.
Additionally, DeWine’s budget reduces the FSF formula guarantees to 95% in FY 2026 and 90% in FY 2027. In his press conference, DeWine indicated school districts were on the guarantee due to declining enrollment numbers. In FY 2025, 187 districts were on the guarantee and, of those districts, 31 were experiencing growing enrollment. There are many reasons a school district can be on the guarantee, and declining enrollment is one possible reason.
The House Finance Committee held several budget hearings the week of Feb. 3, which included testimony from Ohio Office of Budget Management Director Kim Murnieks and Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Steve Dackin. Members of both the majority and minority caucuses, who sit on the House Finance Committee, pushed back on the guarantee reductions due to declining enrollment. When asked about school-funding decisions, including guarantees and FY 2022 inputs, Dackin repeatedly said, “What we're recommending is simply a starting point.”
The process for additional school-funding deliberations has changed slightly from the last budget cycle. Instead of the House operating its budget discussions from several subcommittees, the standing committees that have budget-related items will do that work. All school-funding hearings will occur in the House Education Committee.
DeWine’s budget proposal also includes these education-related items:
- continues state investments in school choice programs at levels similar to the current ones;
- dedicates $10 million over the biennium to the Ohio Principal Apprenticeship Program established in Senate Bill 168 of the 135th General Assembly;
- earmarks $12 million in lottery funds for Science of Reading literacy coaches and requires that schools with low rates of proficient readers focus more funding on literacy supports;
- invests $30 million over the biennium to create a new school bus safety grant program based on the recommendations of the governor’s Ohio School Bus Safety Working Group, providing $4 million to increase the annual bus driver training requirement from four to six hours and widening access to advanced driver training;
- invests $7 million each fiscal year in competitive grants to support career planning and workforce readiness initiatives for K-12 students;
- increases the Community School Facilities per pupil amount from $1,000 to $1,500;
- creates the Driver Training in Schools Grant Program at the Ohio Department of Public Safety, funded by nonmedical marijuana sales tax revenue, for school districts to fund driver’s education at their high schools;
- continues the administration's work on school-based health, expanding the number of school-based health centers in high-need counties and providing resources and technical support to these health centers across the state;
- invests $50 million over the biennium to create a new vision services program, OhioSEE, which would ensure that K-three students who fail vision screenings receive comprehensive eye exams and glasses, if needed.