EDITOR’S NOTE: This column was authored by Vella King. She is a member of the All in for Ohio Kids Coalition and sits on the Hillsdale Local School Board. She is not writing on behalf of the district or the board.
I decided to run for Hillsdale Local School Board 12 years ago when the district was in financial trouble. I wanted to give back for all it had given my family. My children graduated from Hillsdale and my grandchildren are also Hillsdale Falcons.
Today, with more challenges on the horizon, it’s time to protect our schools for future generations.
Over the next two years, Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget proposal would cut $103 million from public K-12 education, including $296,697 from our district. Meanwhile, this May, voters will be asked to renew an existing levy to pay for educator salaries, and materials.
The issue does not increase taxes: An owner of a $100,000 property will continue to contribute $28.91 a month so our district can maintain basic day-to-day operations.
Our small rural district has topnotch academics – earning us a four-star rating. We offer unique classes such as blogging and video production.
We’re small, but punch above our weight in athletics, making the playoffs in football, baseball and boys’ basketball. Our softball team went to the state championship multiple years, and a freshman girl went to state for pole vaulting.
The district is a good steward of public dollars, as reflected in our clean financial audits.
Yet, we do it all without our fair share of support from the state. In fact, under the funding formula, the state only allocates 10% of our budget – the minimum allowed.
For years, the state contributed far too little to Ohio’s overall public school system – and the Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to fix it four times.
That is why much of the responsibility to fund our district falls to the local taxpayer through property taxes.
Finally, in 2021, educators, parents, and students pushed the General Assembly to pass the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan.
The plan is based on the painstaking work of superintendents, educators, and lawmakers who developed a formula that calculates the actual cost of educating a child in different communities with different needs.
Under the plan, the state allocates its share based on that cost.
When lawmakers included the plan in the 2022-23 State Budget, they did so with the intention that it would be phased in over six years – with the final phase in the 2026-27 state budget.
Gov. DeWine’s budget proposal breaks the Fair School Funding Plan’s formula by using outdated costs to calculate the state’s share but current costs to calculate local communities’ contribution.
We all know that with inflation, you can’t use last year’s dollar to buy groceries today. It doesn’t make sense for families, and it doesn’t make sense in a state budget either.
DeWine’s proposal throws the formula out of balance, taking advantage of increasing property valuations to artificially shrink the state’s responsibility.
Hillsdale is counting on voters to make sure we can keep providing our kids with an excellent education, but the reality is, DeWine’s budget will shortchange districts like ours.
The state budget is moving swiftly through the House and will soon be in the Senate. Now is the time to urge our local legislators – Rep. Melanie Miller in the House and Sen. Mark Romanchuck – to fix DeWine’s proposal.
While we push our state lawmakers to do right by our kids, it’s important we talk to our own friends and neighbors about what’s at stake with this renewal levy this May.
If someone asks why levies seem so frequent, remind them about our lawmakers’ obligation to pay their fair share – as required by the Ohio Constitution.