School districts bracing for cuts in state funding

By Charlie Boss

Columbus Dispatch

The state’s next budget won’t become clear for another year, but school districts already are bracing for a financial storm.

With an $8 billion state deficit likely at the end of the current two-year budget, many central Ohio school-district treasurers are predicting they’ll get less — perhaps as much as 10 percent less — from the state in the next budget. Others are projecting flat funding.

“It’s a shot in the dark to forecast out two to three years,” said Pickerington schools Treasurer Dan Griscom. “It’s much more difficult than it has been in the past because of the state budget and the fluid nature of state funding.”

School-district projections, part of five-year forecasts submitted to the state this month, show a funding problem in the short term and raise questions about Gov. Ted Strickland’s promise to fully fund Ohio schools by 2018-19.

Strickland’s “evidence-based” school-funding formula, which was included in the current state budget, says the state will pay for proven methods of improving education, such as tutoring, teacher training and smaller elementary-class sizes.

The plan also calls for all-day kindergarten starting this fall, although many districts have received waivers to delay the start. The Ohio Department of Education projected that putting all-day kindergarten in every district would cost at least $205 million.

The uncertain financial picture is especially troubling for districts such as Pickerington that are trying to decide how much money to ask from taxpayers in November levy requests.

On Monday, Griscom will present a five-year forecast to Pickerington school-board members that shows a $3.4 million drop in state funding for both 2012 and 2013 because of the loss of federal stimulus money.

Stimulus funds, which are funneled through the state before schools receive them, have supplemented dollars that districts previously received from the state.

“This is a body blow to us,” Griscom said of the drop, noting that 54 percent of the district’s revenue comes from the state. “I’m being as pessimistic as I can be at this time.”

The state cut money to districts by as much as 1 percent this year and 2 percent in the 2010-11 budget. But the state budget is balanced with nearly $8 billion in one-time state and federal money. Strickland said he hopes that Washington will approve new federal-stimulus money before the next budget, but few expect the federal government to hand out enough to plug Ohio’s gap.

School officials are worried that their districts might take a big hit given the anticipated deficit; state legislators have explored scenarios in which schools’ state funding could be cut, on average, 22 percent during the next two years.

Districts’ five-year financial forecasts must be submitted to the state in May and October.