DeRolph study: Little progress in funding

Submitted information

COLUMBUS — School funding expert Dr. Howard Fleeter on Wednesday released the results of an analysis of how Ohio’s school funding system has fared since the landmark DeRolph Ohio Supreme Court case, decided in 1997. The Ohio School Boards Association, Buckeye Association of School Administrators Ohio Association of School Business Officials asked Fleeter, of the Ohio Education Policy Institute, to conduct the analysis.

Fleeter found a limited amount of funding progress over the 20-year period, with much of the growth in state funding occurring in the first 10 years. Seventy-five percent of the increase in combined state and local revenues occurred from fiscal year 1999 to fiscal year 2009 for all five wealth quintiles (the analysis looks at funding increases by wealth quintiles on a per-pupil basis).

While per-pupil state and local revenues increased for all quintiles once adjusted for inflation, the increase for the lowest-wealth districts ($1,775 per pupil) was only $107 more than was the increase for the highest wealth districts ($1,668 per pupil). Fleeter’s report concluded this is an indication the funding gap between low-wealth and high-wealth districts has not been narrowed appreciably since the DeRolph decision.

This report, combined with reports previously issued by Fleeter and the Ohio Education Policy Institute, show significant educational disparities among districts.

The education organizations requesting the analysis said the report will provide credible data for legislators and the education community during the upcoming state budget deliberations.