Ohio Legislature Abandons Fair School Funding Plan as Private School Vouchers Surge
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The Ohio House of Representatives has effectively dismantled the state’s bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan, providing just $280 million in additional public school funding over the next two years while simultaneously increasing private school voucher spending by $432 million. This dramatic policy reversal will leave Ohio’s public schools $2.75 billion short of constitutionally required funding while dramatically expanding subsidies for private education.
TL;DR
Ohio lawmakers abandoned the Fair School Funding Plan.
Public schools will receive $2.75 billion less than required.
Private school vouchers increased by $432 million.
Most vouchers went to families already in private schools.
Policy creates funding inequality across districts.
Rural and high-poverty districts face the largest cuts.
Decision affects over 1.6 million Ohio students.
Constitutional Crisis Deepens
Since 1997, when the Ohio Supreme Court declared the state’s school funding system unconstitutional, lawmakers have struggled to create an equitable funding formula. The Fair School Funding Plan, implemented in 2021 through bipartisan legislation, was designed to answer a fundamental question that had never been properly addressed: How much does it actually cost to educate a child in Ohio?
The FSFP was developed to address Ohio’s unconstitutional and inequitable school funding system by allocating resources based on local capacity to raise revenue and the actual cost of educating students, according to Policy Matters Ohio researcher Molly Bryden. The current legislative proposal abandons this evidence-based approach, returning instead to what education advocates call “residual budgeting,” where lawmakers determine how much they want to spend on schools and then work backward to create a per-pupil formula that matches that predetermined amount.
While public school funding faces dramatic cuts, Ohio’s private school voucher programs are experiencing unprecedented growth. In the 2023-24 school year, Ohio gave out nearly 69,000 new EdChoice Expansion vouchers, while private school enrollment grew by fewer than 3,000 students, indicating that most vouchers went to families already attending private schools.
The voucher expansion has proven particularly beneficial to higher-income families. Only 17% of 2023-24 EdChoice Expansion recipients qualified as low-income, compared to 67% the previous year, highlighting how the program has shifted from supporting disadvantaged students to subsidizing families who were already choosing private education. The cost of Ohio’s five voucher programs reached $966.2 million for the 2023-24 school year—enough to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan.
Author Quote"
This policy shift represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how sustainable school improvement actually works—adequate, predictable funding is essential for implementing comprehensive educational reforms.
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Educational Equity at Risk
From an educational leadership perspective, this policy shift represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how sustainable school improvement actually works. Research consistently shows that adequate, predictable funding is essential for implementing comprehensive educational reforms and maintaining high-quality programming through comprehensive educational system approaches.
The performance-based supplements included in the new budget create particularly troubling equity issues. Districts with the lowest student poverty levels and more community wealth are the beneficiaries of over two-thirds of state spending on the performance supplement component (67.1%), though they represent less than half of Ohio students (48.8%). This approach ignores the well-documented correlation between community economic conditions and school performance ratings.
Key Takeaways:
1
$2.75 billion funding shortfall: Ohio public schools will receive $2.75 billion less than required under the Fair School Funding Plan over the next two years
2
$432 million voucher expansion: Private school voucher spending increases dramatically while public school funding stagnates
3
94% voucher inefficiency: Of 69,000 new EdChoice Expansion vouchers, only 3,000 represented new private school enrollment
Implementation Challenges Ahead
The shift away from the Fair School Funding Plan creates significant uncertainty for district leaders attempting to plan budgets and programs. Now that the legislature has abandoned the FSFP entirely, state lawmakers wield more power to further dismantle Ohio’s public education funding in the next budget, making long-term strategic planning nearly impossible.
Education leaders will need to develop contingency plans for multiple funding scenarios while advocating for sustainable funding solutions. The unpredictability of residual budgeting makes it extremely difficult to implement multi-year improvement initiatives or make commitments to staffing and programming that require sustained investment. For comprehensive support of student learning outcomes, districts may be forced to increase their reliance on local property tax levies, further exacerbating inequities between wealthy and poor communities.
Author Quote"
When funding is tied to performance metrics that strongly correlate with socioeconomic factors, the policy effectively penalizes schools serving the most vulnerable students.
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The situation in Ohio serves as a critical case study for other states grappling with similar tensions between school choice expansion and public education funding adequacy. As more states consider similar approaches, the long-term impact on student outcomes and educational equity will provide important data for policymakers nationwide. For comprehensive analysis of education policy trends and their implications for school leaders, explore our All Access Program.
