More about the Fair School Funding Explorer
The Fair School Funding Plan is based on a formula created by a bipartisan work group over years of collaboration and study to ensure the state contributes its fair share of funding to public school districts. The Plan is designed so that kids receive a constitutionally adequate education, regardless of their zip code.
It’s a complex formula, but in broad terms it works like this:
The formula starts by calculating how much it costs to educate a “typical” student, and how much it costs to educate students with different needs. The formula then assigns a portion of the costs to the local community based on property valuations and income base, and a portion of the cost to the state. Some wealthier districts that have higher property values and more capacity to afford the costs of education locally, get less support from the state than poorer districts.
Like any formula, if you fudge the numbers, you get the wrong answer. That’s exactly what state leaders are trying to do. Some policymakers want to use the most recent available property valuations to decide how much communities should contribute, without updating the costs of education at the same time.
Think about it: Your grocery bill isn’t the same as it was three years ago, and neither are school expenses. In a lot of Ohio communities, property values are skyrocketing, taking property taxes up with them. If the costs are not also updated, districts appear to have more capacity than they truly do, artificially decreasing how much funding they get from the state.
Fully implementing the Fair School Funding Plan represents the best chance we’ve had in decades to fully and fairly fund public schools. Let’s move forward together and do right by Ohio’s kids.
Methodology
Fair funding: Total change over the biennium from FY25 based on LSC analysis of the Fair School Funding Formula updating base cost input data to FY24 for FY26 funding and base cost input data to FY25 for FY27 funding. It includes updates to categorical weights for special education and English language learners. It maintains the guarantees across each year of the biennium. FY25 property tax inputs and base cost inputs are both projected based on a trend analysis of each input’s historical growth rate since FY18. Projected Average Daily Membership (ADM, a measure of enrollment) does not change from FY25 to FY26 to FY27.
Executive budget: Total change over the biennium from FY25 based on LSC analysis of the governor’s proposed budget, HB 96.
Current funding: Based on total formula funding, including Foundation State Funding, Temporary Transitional Aid Guarantee, Supplemental Targeted Assistance, Transportation, and Formula Transition Supplement, drawn from the Traditional School Districts Payment Report for FY25 (January #2, summary SFPR), provided by the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce.
Before FSFP: Funding the district received in the base year (FY20) after adjustments for any funding transfers to community/STEM schools, net transfers for open enrollment students and transfers for students participating in a scholarship program. See, FY25 SFPR Funding Line-by-Line Explanation.
Contact your legislators: Legislators are included in the contact list for a school district if 1) at least one of that school district’s buildings is inside the legislator’s district or 2) at least 25% of that school district’s area is covered by the legislator’s district.