Ohio educators rally for school funding at Statehouse ahead of budget announcement

Ohio educators held one last rally to urge the state Senate to fully fund public schools ahead of the chamber’s budget proposal.

Teaching at Jefferson Area High School in Ashtabula County was only supposed to be a temporary job while John Patterson finished graduate school.

“I discovered that teaching was my calling, and it was my mission,” said Patterson, a retired teacher of 29 years.

Like him, education is a passion for many teachers. Dozens made their way to the Ohio Statehouse to show their support for public school funding.

“It’s important for Ohio’s kids, it’s important for Ohio’s future, to get the school funding formula totally in place so there’s predictability and sustainability for all of our schools in every corner of the state,” Patterson told me.

The educators protested against the House’s passed budget, one that slashes hundreds of millions of dollars from the expected school spending.

The program currently in place, the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP), was a bipartisan formula that Patterson helped create when he was a state representative.

“I spent a great deal of time with my dear friend (former Republican House Speaker) Robert Cupp to come together to put something out there for the legislature that is sustainable, that is transparent, and that is good for the future,” Patterson said.

But Speaker Matt Huffman says that funding level is “unsustainable.”

Now the future of the education budget is in Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino’s (R-Kirtland) hands.

“When we make a move in the budget for school systems, it impacts different systems in different ways,” Cirino said during the start of the budget process. “That’s what makes it complicated.”

Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) warned that the funding formula could actually decrease the amount of money for schools this year.

“There’s a chance that schools would see negative numbers as a result of that formula going into place,” he said.

According to lawmakers who work closely with schools, including state Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, about 5% of districts would have less money this year than they did last year because they have fewer students enrolled.

“Are you fine potentially seeing negative numbers for some of these school districts?” McColley asked.

Patterson said that this makes the funding breakdown more equitable for public schools across the state.

With the House’s budget, every school would receive significantly less money than they planned for, which districts have already said could lead to staff and program cuts.

“Shop classes or (Future Farmers of America) classes or art, music and gym that aren’t necessarily required, those sorts of programs could get put on the chopping block,” Patterson continued.

The retired teacher is hoping that the Senators hear him before the budget amendments are announced this week.

“To help kids, that’s who I am,” Patterson said.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.