What Is the Fair School Funding Plan?
The Fair School Funding Plan is Ohio’s framework for determining what it costs to provide every public-school student with a quality education and how that cost should be shared between the state and local communities.
Unlike funding systems based primarily on available revenue or political negotiation, the plan begins by calculating the actual resources needed to operate a school including teachers, student-support services, school and district leadership, technology, and building operations. This calculation is known as the base cost of education.
The plan then considers each community’s ability to raise revenue locally. It uses both property values and residents’ incomes to determine a district’s local capacity. The state is expected to provide a larger share of funding in communities with less capacity to raise money and a smaller share in communities with greater capacity. Additional funding is calculated for students whose education may require more resources, including students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, English learners, gifted students, and students receiving career-technical education.
In simple terms, the Fair School Funding Plan seeks to answer two essential questions:
- What does it actually cost to educate Ohio’s students?
- What is a fair division of that responsibility between the state and each local community?
The plan was enacted beginning with Ohio’s fiscal year 2022–2023 state budget and was designed to be phased in over several budget cycles. However, the formula is only as effective as the information and funding placed into it. For fiscal years 2026 and 2027, several base-cost calculations continue to rely on fiscal year 2022 salary and expenditure data (refer to the FY26 SFPR Funding Line by Line Explanation under Resources link). When costs are not regularly updated, the formula may not reflect what schools currently pay for teachers, transportation, technology, utilities, supplies, and other essential services.
The Fair School Funding Plan does not eliminate the need for every local levy, nor does it guarantee identical spending in every district. Its purpose is to establish a transparent and understandable method for calculating educational costs and distributing state assistance according to students’ needs and each community’s capacity.
Ohio Advocacy for Fair School Funding supports the complete implementation of the plan, the regular updating of its cost data, and a sustained state commitment to paying its calculated share. A fair, current, and fully funded formula is essential to providing every child with the opportunity to succeed.