Lima schools considers school funding resolution
Jun. 19—LIMA — Lima schools may become the latest school district to call on lawmakers to adopt the House's school funding formula, as the Ohio House and Senate have eight days to reconcile their budgets before the next fiscal year begins July 1.
The House plan would eliminate state funding caps and guarantees, creating a new formula based on the cost to educate a child in each district. The Senate included a different plan in its two-year budget introduced in June, which would increase the base cost provided by the state from $6,020 to $6,110 per student.
The Lima schools' board on Monday will consider a resolution supporting the House plan, following Superintendent Jill Ackerman and Treasurer Shelly Reiff who signed a petition in support of the bill this spring.
"The bottom line is that we need the Senate to pass it and we need the Senate to take it seriously and let it go through," Ackerman said in an emailed statement Friday. "It's the answer to fair funding, while the Senate version is not. The resolution is a call for a sense of urgency around getting it past before the end of the month."
A similar resolution was adopted by the Elida schools' board in February.
The fast-approaching deadline for lawmakers to reconcile the House and Senate budgets has led to a flurry of activity.
Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro on Thursday described the House plan as a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity to correct Ohio's school funding formula, as lawmakers learned the state may have another $3 billion to spend over the next two fiscal years than originally expected.
"The lawmakers who continue to push for a continuation of the status quo under the partisan Senate school funding plan were put on notice today: There is zero excuse not to fix our school funding system right now," DiMauro said in a statement.
Lawmakers have debated Ohio's school funding formula since the Ohio Supreme Court first ruled it unconstitutional in 1997.
A working group led by House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) and Democratic Rep. John Patterson led to the House's proposed fix, which Cupp told The Lima News in May would make it easier for schools to calculate how much they would likely get under the formula.
Senate Leader Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has described the House plan as "a series of guarantees unrelated to costs," questioning the long-term affordability of the plan.
