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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > May > 29 > Entry
Senate GOP cuts state budget by $659 million; charter schools gain
Ohio Senate Republicans have slashed $659 million from the $54 billion state budget approved earlier by the House and in the process eliminated or reworked much of Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to overhaul schools and school funding.
The Senate GOP plan for House Bill 1, unveiled on Friday, May 29, also helps charter schools. The House budget cut their funding by 15 percent. The Senate GOP version keeps spending for charters at the existing level for the next two years, said Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester. Republicans control the Senate 21-12
Charter school backers rejoiced.
“The Senate’s restoration of funding for Ohio’s charter schools provides a lifeline to more than 80,000 public school students and their families,” Bill Sims, Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools president, said in a press release. “It also annuls the constitutional questions raised by House bill provisions which would have cut funding for Ohio’s public charter schools by as much as $160 million in 2010.”
The Republican-controlled Senate expects to vote on the budget next Wednesday or Thursday, setting the stage for a conference committee with the Democratic-controlled House to come up with a compromise plan. The budget must be approved and signed by Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
Because of continuing state revenue shortfalls, more spending cuts are expected in the conference committee.
“We want to work with the governor. We want to work with the House,” Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said.
Besides increasing money for charter schools, the Senate GOP version guarantees all Ohio school districts a .25 percent increase in the first year of the new budget and a .5 percent increase the second year. Fast-growing school districts, those growing by more than 2 percent per year, would receive a 2 percent spending increase each year.
The Senate GOP came up with the $659 million reduction by:
*Cutting $417 million from state agencies.
*Ordering $42 million in cost-containment for Medicaid.
*Using savings of $200 million from a Strickland executive order.
The spending cuts include $96 million to eliminate a business internship program aimed at keeping bright young workers in the state.
The Senate plan eliminates 34 proposed fee increases and 139 project earmarks. “If it was earmarked, it’s gone,” Faber said.
“It was not an easy decision,” said Finance Committee Chairman John Carey, R-Wellston.
Funding for Strickland’s so-called “evidence-based model” for schools was phased in over 10 years in the House budget. The Senate eliminated the 10-year phase in. The Senate said Strickland’s plan was “fundamentally flawed because it centered on school staffing needs rather than student needs.”
The Senate GOP plan eliminated requirements for districts to provide nurses, tutors, counselors and reduced student-teacher ratios. It also eliminated the requirement for all-day kindergarten for all districts but expanded the number of districts serving poor students that would get state funding for all-day kindergarten.
The Senate had to make the cuts in the wake of revised revenue projections announced on May 5, shortly after the Senate got the proposed new two-year budget from the House. The projections revealed a $912 million shortfall for the budget year ending June 30. The shortfall for this year will carry over into the new two-year budget.
Except for increases to K-12 education and higher education, the Senate Repbublicans either kept spending for all other agencies at current levels or reduced them.
K-12 spending would increase $128 million in the first year of the new budget and an additional $156 million the second year, said Cates.
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Comments
By GimiZeni
December 12, 2009 10:06 AM | Link to this
yeah.. good thoughts ))
By agendawatch
May 30, 2009 7:10 PM | Link to this
The the post from “Skeptic”, you sound just like the Agenda 360 bleeding hearts that want those that still work to pay for all the social welfare that keeps your family fed while you sit at home collecting welfare.
By Ohio Resident
May 30, 2009 5:51 PM | Link to this
Hey Ohio, Where are all the funds for schools from the “lottery”. It seems like that misconception is really paying off for the kids of this state!
By Dixie Lady
May 29, 2009 4:06 PM | Link to this
I’m relieved to see the Charter Schools will still receive their funding. The ones which my grandsons attend are fantastic compared to the school they would have been going to. I’m a strong supporter of eliminating the bad charter and public schools and funding the good ones. Those that have a consistant record of poor student performance and mismanagement of funds.
By Skeptic
May 29, 2009 3:48 PM | Link to this
Giving more money to the “fastest growing” school districts is yet another way of subsidizing wasteful SPRAWL at the expense of our cities and first-tier suburbs. Ohio must “fix it first” to stay competitive in the new economy.