Ohio Senate to release budget plan today

COLUMBUS (AP) — An overhaul of Gov. Ted Strickland’s school-funding proposal and roughly $1 billion in cuts to the budget proposal approved by the Ohio House are scheduled to be released today by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The Senate, skeptical about Ohio’s ability to pay for Strickland’s proposed “evidence-based” funding formula in future years, will instead continue funding schools on a per-pupil basis, in which the funding follows each individual student, state Sen. John Carey said Thursday.

Strickland had proposed funding schools based on organizational units, such as the number of teachers and classrooms, that evidence has shown gives each student a quality education.

Critics of per-pupil funding say it provides an arbitrary amount per student instead of determining what it costs to fund an education.

“It’s better to fund what works than it is to fund whatever,” said Andy Benson, director of policy for the KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

The Senate’s funding plan is expected to restores funding to charter schools that Strickland had proposed cutting.

The Senate changes all but assure a heated education policy struggle during negotiations with the Democratic-controlled House over the next several weeks.

Despite the most difficult budget environment in recent memory, the Senate is expected — as the governor and House have recommended — to invest heavily in education.

The Senate is expected to maintain a tuition freeze at the state’s four-year colleges and universities for an additional year, and for other public college and universities for another two years.

But to maintain those education priorities, the Senate had to cut from other areas. One is expected to be a $50 million-a-year internship and cooperative program lawmakers had agreed to fund as a part of a state-level economic stimulus package approved last year. The goal of the program was to provide more opportunities for college students to work at local businesses with the hopes that more students would stay in Ohio following graduation.

“When we unveil it tomorrow, you’ll see we had to make some tough decisions,” Carey said when asked about potential cuts to the internship program.

Advocates for social service programs have been fearing drastic cuts. But senators signaled that cuts wouldn’t be as bad as expected. Carey cited testimony from numerous advocacy groups about the importance of maintaining services for vulnerable Ohioans during the economic recession.

“There was an effort made to protect the social safety net,” said state Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican from Kettering.

But one social service area expected to see significant cuts is the Help Me Grow program, a federally and state-funded program that pays for nurse visits to the homes of children at risk of abuse and neglect, and those with developmental disabilities. The program received $112 million in the current two-year budget, but Strickland proposed more than a $40 million cut, and the House reduced funding to about $36 million.

The Senate is expected to make cuts to numerous state agencies, and remove a requirement that insurance companies provide coverage for autism treatment, fearing the mandate would end up hurting Ohio businesses.

Carey has said the Senate would use the same revenue forecast used by the House. That forecast was even more optimistic about revenue than one used by the governor, which has consistently been overshooting actual tax revenues.

Lawmakers expect to receive a revenue update before they negotiate on the budget that will likely force them to make more cuts to the budget plan before it is sent to Strickland before July 1.