OHIO — Now that millions in the state’s capital budget have been set aside for K-12 construction projects, districts will have to get community buy-in to complete those projects.

What You Need To Know

  • $600 million in state funding has been allocated for K-12 building and construction
  • The state has a formula to determine how much the district will receive as part of the project
  • In southeast Ohio, there hasn’t been any new K-12 district projects since 1997

Jerry Rampell, founder of Support Ohio Schools Research Foundation, said going through the state’s process to get assistance comes with strings attached.

“The State of Ohio has rules and regulations about what kind of building you can have, the size and those types of things. Plus, the state determines how much a district would get, based on whether it’s a high wealth or lower wealth district,” said Rampell. “The higher the wealth of the district, the less that will be. The lower the wealth in the district, the higher that percentage.”

For areas like southeast Ohio, he indicated it’s been more challenging to get some things done.

"You look at southeastern Ohio, there were no projects since 1997 that had been done there because these are areas where there’s no industry, very little commercial property, residential, and many of these folks live paycheck to paycheck and getting them to vote, the millage that would be needed for the local share, even at 10% or 20% is really a stretch for many of these people financially," Rampell said.

While a district oftentimes has to rely on levies to be passed in order to take care of their local share of a project. Rampell said there is hope for that happening this November.

That’s because Ohio always sees a larger turnout during presidential elections, which means better chances of passing a school tax levy.