One of the vetoes included a provision many school treasurers and superintendents opposed that would have required schools to return money to taxpayers if they had more than 40% of their budget left over at the end of the year.
Several local superintendents, including Oakwood’s Neil Gupta, Northmont’s Tony Thomas, Beavercreek’s Paul Otten, Fairfield’s Billy Smith, and Clark-Shawnee’s Brian Kuhn have testified against the bill, along with school treasurers and board members.
That and other property tax related measures DeWine vetoed could see an attempt from the Ohio Statehouse GOP supermajority to override the governor with a three-fifths vote.
School Funding
Overall, funding for Ohio’s schools is higher than previous budgets, providing an increase in funds for private school vouchers, public schools with high performance metrics or increased enrollment, and increased funding for charter schools.
Funding for traditional school districts under the version of the budget that DeWine signed is $8.22 billion in the 2025-2026 school year, and $8.31 billion in 2026-2027.
But advocates for public education say the current budget does not fund public education at the level promised in previous legislation.
“Ohio’s educators remain profoundly disappointed in the failures of this General Assembly to fully and fairly fund the public schools that serve 90 percent of the students in our state,” the Ohio Education Association, one of the teachers’ unions in Ohio, said in a statement. “Our lawmakers must do better for our public school students, educators, and communities.”
In 2021, lawmakers negotiated the Fair School Funding plan, which was designed to provide more funding to public schools. Since then, lawmakers have only partly funded the plan.
Some local public schools, such as Lakota and Centerville, could see an increase in funding under the latest version of the budget. But others, such as Northmont, could see a cut.
There will also be a funding increase of $376 million across Ohio’s five main scholarship programs: EdChoice, EdChoice Expansion, Cleveland, Autism and Jon Peterson Special Needs.
The amount of money that families are able to get for the Autism Scholarship and the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship will go up, capped now at about $34,000.
Families using those scholarships can get virtual help beginning in October.
“While we hoped for more bold advancements, we remain committed to building on this foundation and continuing the work to ensure access to the right educational fit for every child,” said Yitz Frank, president of School Choice Ohio, a nonprofit that advocates for private and charter schools.
STRS board members reduced
The budget proposed a cut to members of the board on the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, the state teacher’s pension fund.
Instead of seven elected teachers, including five active teachers and two retired, three elected seats will remain, including two educator seats for current teachers and one retired.
Elected members will be able to finish their terms, but after the term ends, four of the seven positions will not be filled. The most recently elected members are retired member Rudy Fichtenbaum and active teachers Chad Smith and Michael Harkness.
DeWine did not veto the item.
Other items vetoed
There were multiple other items DeWine vetoed.
- With a DeWine veto, school board members and educational service center board members do not need to go through a primary election and appear on the general ballot with a political party designation.
- DeWine vetoed educational savings accounts for nonchartered schools, which do not have a charter from the state and are generally unregulated. The law would have made a program available to get state funding for tuition and other expenses through the account.
- Another school finance-related item, which could have pushed down the amount of money schools that do not collect much property tax could collect, was vetoed. For schools who are at the 20-mill floor, or the bare minimum amount of millage that schools will collect under state law, the calculation would have changed to include emergency and substitute tax levies, incremental growth levies, conversion levies and the property tax portion of combined income tax and property taxes.
DeWine said he would convene a working group including legislators, agency officials, school officials, community members and property tax experts to discuss the issue of property tax reforms. Property taxes and state funding make up most of school funding, and the amount of state funding depends on how much the local property is worth.
Another controversial measure DeWine did not veto prohibits Dayton Public Schools students from using school-issued Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority bus passes to go through the downtown Dayton RTA hub next school year.
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