CMSD School Superintendent Eric Gordon
Governor Kasich’s veto of two items in the state’s education budget were supposed to trim back funding to wealthy districts. But not every district suffering losses was well-off.Governor Kasich wanted a budget that sent more money to poor districts and cut funding to rich districts. The House and Senate version flattened it out so no district would get less money than the last biennium.So Kasich got out his veto pen and stopped the compensation for districts who would lose money because of a phase-out of a business tax. He also cut the guarantee that wealthy districts would not see losses.Mostly well-off schools took the hit. But the biggest losses came for the high poverty district of Cleveland – looking at a projected drop of $13.8 million dollars. Cleveland school superintendent Eric Gordon:“It does looks like in the 2nd year of the budget we will see a substantial decrease. We think it’s going to be less than the $14 million dollars originally projected because our enrollment is better than projected and enrollment drives state dollars. But we are forecasting probably $10m loss in the second year. “While Cleveland is losing about 3% of what it would have received without the vetoes, some districts are losing as much as 40%. Gordon says he understands that Kasich wanted a budget that made rich districts raise their own money.“He didn’t feel that occurred in what was sent to him from the conference committee and this is one of the ways he’s trying to shape the budget toward his goals. Unfortunate for us, as one of the schools that depends on the state the most because of our community’s relative wealth, we see a bigger magnitude of impact. “Worthington Schools in Franklin County and Sycamore Schools in Hamilton also swill see second year cuts of more than two million dollars. Statewide, the Kasich vetoes cut education spending by nearly 100 million dollars.