Solon Schools: Governor's Budget Would Devastate Us

Devastating. Unprecedented. Unfair.

Solon Schools officials are using strong words to describe the harm they say would be inflicted on the schools under Gov. John Kasich's budget proposal.

Based on the information available so far, Solon schools stands to lose $2.5 million next year – the equivalent of 40 teaching positions. It's a "funding raid" that will inevitably result in lowering the quality of Solon schools.

"There simply is no way to sustain cuts of that magnitude," said spokeswoman Tamara Strom.

To mobilize residents to fight the budget proposal, school district officials have scheduled a public forum for April 7. There, Strom said officials will lay out in detail how the budget proposal will harm the school system and what residents can do to help.

On Thursday, the Office of Budget and Management released data on how much basic state aid each school district would receive under Kasich's two-year budget, and the situation for Solon schools next year went from bad to worse.

Solon, which only receives about 5 percent of its funding from the state's basic aid, will see that funding cut by $1.3 million starting in July, a cut of 54 percent, Strom said.

But that's not the end of the cuts. Solon schools will lose another $1.2 million starting in July, a result of the accelerated phase-out of the tangible personal property tax reimbursement funds. Then each year after that, they will lose an additional $1.2 million, with the cut growing annually until the entire $10.6 million tangible tax reimbursement is gone.

School officials anticipated losing the reimbursement, but not until 2013. The governor's budget would speed up the process.

School officials have not been mincing words about how they view the budget as unfairly damaging one of the top-performing school systems in the state. 

Strom said that residents have done their part to support the schools by approving levies when needed and shouldering the lion's share of the school's annual funding needs.

The budget proposal is only that – a proposal, and the specifics will be haggled and debated in the halls of the General Assembly once the budget bill is submitted.

Strom said now is the time for residents to try to convince their legislators to change course.

"This isn't crying wolf," Strom said. "This is real."