A quick glance at Gov. John Kasich’s education plan under the new state budget looks like a great deal: $1.5 billion dollars in additional resources to local schools, a grant program to fund new ideas in schools, and even scholarships given to new kindergartners whose parents are close to the poverty level.
But only two of Athens County’s school districts will be receiving new funds in the next two years.
“We’re basically flat-lined on our (state) funds,” said Athens Local Schools Superintendent Carl Martin.
During the years, the district has lost state funding, Martin said, noting that state funds have fallen about 20 percent in the past decade.
It’s hard to say exactly how much Athens school districts will be receiving from the state because the state does not finalize how much money it gives schools — though the overwhelming majority of state funds are guaranteed— until early October, said Matt Bunting, treasurer of Athens Local Schools. That’s because state funding is partly based on enrollment, which fluctuates through September and stabilizes in October.
Last year, Athens Local School District received about $7.6 million. Even though the state isn’t projecting an increase in funds for this year, Bunting is hopeful that an enrollment increase will push state funding up slightly to $7.7 million.
Bunting acquires that number after factoring in Ohio University students who have school-aged children, who will start trickling into classrooms now that the semester has started.
Alexander Local School District, which is not estimated to receive any extra money from the state in the next two years, is facing the same problem as Athens.
“We’re still getting the same funding from three or four years ago,” Alexander Superintendent Jeff Cullum said. “It makes it tighter and tighter every year.”
Ohio determines the amount of money distributed in each school district by partially basing it on home values in the district. Because of this formula, school districts like Athens receive less funding than others like Trimble.
Trimble, which is 44 percent of the size of Athens and has about a third as many students as Athens, received about $6.7 million from the state in the last year, and will be receiving an estimated $7.1 million this school year.
So, naturally, officials there view Kasich’s education plan more positively than school officials in Athens.
“Compared to the original budget released by (Kasich), this budget is more favorable, Trimble Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Jones said in an email.
Officials from Nelsonville-York and Federal Hocking school districts could not be reached for comment by press time.
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