The state of Ohio will spend about $8.1 billion on K-12 education this year.
At least that’s what Gov. Mike DeWine has proposed in his latest school funding plan, which is part of his larger state budget bill. The governor’s proposal cuts funding slightly overall compared to last year, although the proposed reduction comes after years of increases by lawmakers that followed a landmark education bill in 2021.
But Republican lawmakers may have their own plans about K-12 school funding, which ranks after Medicaid as the state government’s second-largest expense. We’ll find out more about what they are soon. The Ohio House is expected to unveil a first draft of their plan on Tuesday. The Senate will get input later this Spring before the budget is finalized at the end of June.
Public school officials are asking for more money than what the governor is proposing to keep up with rising costs and keep their doors open.
At the same time, Republicans who control Ohio’s state legislature also have dramatically changed education funding – and the politics around it – by sending more tax dollars to private schools, in the form of vouchers given to students and their families.
Following the debate in Columbus can be confusing. So to help you better understand how your tax dollars are being spent on education, we are offering this lesson on school funding.
Where do public schools get their money?
Schools receive their money from three main sources:
- The state government, which gets most of its money from state income and sales taxes
- Local taxes, in the form of property taxes and in some cases, local income taxes
- The federal government, which gets most of its money from the federal income tax
Here are more details about each category.
Local taxes
Collectively, the state’s 611 school districts collected – or assessed – roughly $13 billion in property taxes during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the most recent year for which numbers were easily available, according to the Legislative Service Commission. The LSC is the legislature’s nonpartisan research arm and produces school funding primers for lawmakers that are the source for many of the numbers in this article.
About one-third of Ohio’s school districts also have a local income tax they use to get money. These districts received another $679.5 million in income taxes from residents in the state’s fiscal year 2024. (The years don’t line up precisely because the state’s tax and fiscal calendars are different.)
That equals around $13.6 billion from local taxpayers. Ninety-five percent of that comes from property taxes.
State government
The state government, meanwhile, spent $7.99 billion on traditional K-12 public schools the same year. It spent another $1.25 billion on payments to local school districts to cover a portion of local property owners’ tax bills.
Federal government
The federal government spent $3.18 billion funding education in Ohio in 2024.
That means local taxpayers funded about 50% of K-12 education in Ohio, state taxpayers funded about 37% and federal taxpayers funded about 13%.
The exact numbers vary by year.
For instance, the 2023 federal number was inflated by coronavirus pandemic-related spending that has since expired.
Why it matters how much the state kicks in
The breakdown of state versus local education funding was at the core of a series of Ohio Supreme Court decisions in the late 1990s and early 2000s called the DeRolph decisions. The rulings came in response to a lawsuit brought on behalf of a student in rural Perry County, an hour’s drive southeast of Columbus.
The court found that by primarily funding schools through local property taxes, the state’s system violates the Ohio constitution, which requires the state to provide a “thorough and efficient” public-school system.
As a result, richer communities improperly got better funded schools than poorer ones, the court ruled.
State government leaders have spent years trying to make the state’s school funding system constitutional. They’ve tweaked the school funding formula to try to give more money to poorer communities to help level things out.
At the time the decision came out, the state provided 42% of all K-12 school funding. That’s higher than it is now. School officials have pointed this out as they push for DeWine to increase K-12 funding in his current budget plan.
But the state-local school funding share varies district by district.
Here is an example
In Bexley City Schools, an affluent suburb of Columbus with high property values and a school district income tax, schools got 74% of their funding last year from local taxpayers, and just 16% from state taxpayers, according to state education department numbers. Meanwhile, in Huntington Local schools in Ross County, a rural area with low average incomes and property values, schools got 74% of their funding from the state.
Most districts fall somewhere in between.
How does the state decide how much to give each district?
This is the tricky part. Per-district state funding is determined by a complex formula.
The current one is called the Fair School Funding Plan, and was approved in 2021 in what lawmakers heralded as a landmark fix addressing the DeRolph decisions.
The plan significantly increased K-12 school funding, with its funding hikes phased in gradually over six years. But each district gets a different amount, based on measures of local education costs and local taxpayers’ ability to pay for them.
Each district’s amount begins with what’s called a base cost, which tries to calculate how much each district needs to educate a student.
The biggest factors for determining base costs are:
- Student enrollment, which determines how many teachers and staff schools need
- Transportation costs
Other factors then get layered on top of base costs, including districts with higher numbers of “non-typical” students such as those who are:
- Poor
- Have special needs
- Gifted
- Learning English
- Attending vocational schools
Then, the state formula comes up with a number of what it thinks it costs an individual school district to educate its students.
The state formula also takes into account how wealthy each district is, judged by how much its residents make and how valuable its property is.
If a district is deemed to be wealthier, it gets less state funding. If it has poor residents or particularly low local property values, it gets more.
Schools with a large number of students from poor families also qualify for higher amounts of federal funding, under a federal program called Title I. Districts with more kids with special needs also get federal grants under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
How much does the state spend on education now?
DeWine’s new budget bill proposes spending nearly $8.1 billion on traditional K-12 school funding in 2026, and $8 billion in 2027.
That’s up from the $7.2 billion the state spent on schools in 2022, the year after the Fair School Funding Plan went into effect. But it’s almost $100 million less than the state will spend this year.
Why is state cutting education funding?
DeWine has said the drop in school funding next year is due to his decision to reduce the “guarantee” payments to districts. That’s the term for a special state payment schools get if their state funding drops in a given year because of declining student enrollment, or if there’s an increase in a district’s property values – both things that have happened in more districts lately.
DeWine’s budget plan cuts the guarantee by 5% in 2026 and by another 5% in 2027.
There’s another cost-cutting move in DeWine’s K-12 budget.
The governor’s office decided to use 2022 cost numbers, referred to as base costs, to calculate how much each school district should get in state funding.
School officials have pushed back against this decision, saying it fails to reflect two years of inflation. If the state were to use 2024 base costs, it would owe schools another $1.8 billion. DeWine’s office has said the state can’t afford that.
OK, great. So is my school district supposed to get more or less money?
Of Ohio’s 611 school districts, 349 will see a funding decrease under DeWine’s plan, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think-tank in Columbus.
Check this table and look at the “% Change between FY 2025 and FY 2026” number to see how your school district compares.
What about nontraditional schools?
DeWine’s budget also proposes spending from the general fund $1.16 billion in 2026 and $1.25 billion in 2027 on vouchers that help pay families send their kids to private schools.
That’s up from about $1 billion in 2025, and $595 million in 2023.
Why is voucher spending going up?
DeWine and his budget advisers have said they are expecting state voucher spending to go up because they expect more families will opt to apply for vouchers. The state’s rules cap how much money a family can get per student, but don’t cap how many students can apply for them.
Overall voucher spending has increased dramatically since lawmakers voted to make all families eligible to receive them in 2023.
Before that, students either needed to have special needs or live in an underperforming school district in order to qualify.
Republican legislators have a long-term commitment to increasing government spending on private schools. They describe the policy as a form of school choice, allowing families to send their kids to the type of school they prefer. Critics point out the increased spending comes at the expense of traditional public schools and that private schools don’t have to accept every student with a voucher.
What about charter schools?
DeWine’s budget also proposes spending $1.3 billion in 2026 and $1.4 billion in 2027 on community and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) schools, also known as charter schools. These are privately operated schools that receive state tax money and follow state standards.
That’s up slightly from the $1.27 billion the state spent on charter and STEM schools this year.