Some school officials will be spending the Summer planning new levies after Governor Kasich vetoed two line items in the budget this week.It may take some time before they are sure exactly what their funding picture will look like.Kasich's changes to House Bill 64 will mostly affect wealthy districts, off districts, but also hurt some poor districts.
Kasich’s veto means no more bail-outs to help school districts who were seeing a loss in revenues from the elimination of a business property tax.His budget director said it was heavily weighted to favor rich districts but some struggling big city districts like Cleveland will see a loss of millions of dollars.Kasich also put an end to a practice that prevents wealthy districts from seeing any losses in budgets by vetoing the so-called “Guarantee.” He said in February Ohio should not cap increases for poor districts while giving a safety net to rich ones"We put caps on the amount of money a school district ought to get because we're taking it from somebody that has a guarantee. You’re guaranteed not to lose anything which means that we’re giving them the money so it keeps us from giving the money where it’s needed. It’s an unsustainable place to be. Does anybody understand what I just said here? “The governor’s budget is being praised the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a conservative group founded by Jeb Bush and now chaired by Condoleezza Rice.They support Ohio’s increased funding for private school vouchers and the pilot project to allow students to test out of courses and move through the grades faster.