House Education Committee hears wide-ranging testimony on House Bill 96 funding, school programs and supports

The House Education Committee took public testimony on House Bill 96, the state operating budget for K–12 proposals, during a long hearing that drew superintendents, school board members, teachers, parents, students and nonprofit leaders. Witnesses urged the committee to complete the phase-in of the Fair School Funding Plan and to update the formula’s base cost inputs so state aid keeps pace with inflation, property valuation changes and students’ needs.

School leaders emphasized that the governor’s proposed phase-in would leave many districts with lower state funding. Paul Imhoff, with the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, told the committee, “House Bill 96 does include many policy provisions that will positively impact Ohio,” but he warned the bill “uses outdated data to determine a district's base cost” and cited Legislative Service Commission simulations predicting hundreds of districts would lose funding in the next two years. Dr. Angela Chapman, superintendent and CEO of Columbus City Schools, said Columbus “is set to lose over $45,000,000 over the biennium,” and that local levy dollars would be spent replacing state aid earmarked for classroom programs.

Several witnesses pressed for restoring or expanding targeted supports the budget would change or omit. Teachers and gifted-education advocates warned the draft plan removes ongoing gifted professional-development funds. Beth Wilson Fish, a longtime gifted specialist, said the state’s 2018 gifted cost study assumed short-term professional development that in practice must be ongoing: “general education teachers who provide gifted…