Ohio Republican leadership has backtracked on their steadfast effort to cut funding for public education.
Our extensive reporting led to massive backlash for lawmakers, and numerous GOP members spoke out privately.
Ohio’s history with school funding isn’t the brightest. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 in DeRolph v. State that the way the state funds schools is unconstitutional, relying too much on property taxes.
Throughout the next three decades, lawmakers went back and forth on policy in an attempt to fix the unconstitutionality. The Ohio Education Association, as well as lawmakers on each side of the aisle, have deemed that it has been unconstitutional since then. However, some Republicans argue that because they are no longer using the struck-down policy, and since nothing else has been deemed “unconstitutional” in court, they argue that, by definition, it can’t be considered unconstitutional.
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/01/27/ohio-gop-backtracks-on-cutting-public-school-funding/
