More than 120 Ohio public school districts are projecting negative cash balances by 2029 – the worst rate since the Great Recession.
According to data compiled by Ohio State University professor Vlad Kogan, 124 of the 611 public school districts in the state, around 20%, are projecting negative cash balances by fiscal year 2029, the highest rate of negative cash balance projections since 2012.
The data comes as Cincinnati Public Schools is in the throes of finalizing a budget by the end of June, attempting to chip away at a $58.6 million deficit by proposing dozens of cuts to counselors, social workers and programming. As of June 8, the school board has yet to vote on a budget ahead of the June 30 deadline, when the fiscal year officially ends.
Districts around the state – large urban districts to the smallest rural districts – are facing the same somber cuts.
In January, Canton City Schools made $17 million in reductions by closing schools and eliminating staff. In a May board meeting, Columbus City Schools, the state’s largest school district, cut 300 teaching and staff positions along with dozens of administrative positions to chop $50 million from its budget amid a growing financial crisis.
In February, Elyria City Schools near Cleveland approved $9 million in budget cuts – representing around 10% of its overall budget. Barberton City Schools approved more than $6.5 million in cuts.
Kogan said it’s clear many of Ohio’s public schools “are under tremendous stress right now.”
“There’s a statewide story which is obviously concerning, and then there’s a district-specific story,” Kogan said. “What’s causing the problems is going to vary across communities, and so there’s probably not a one-size-fits-all solution.”
‘We are in crisis mode:’ Many public schools see financial cliff on horizon
In the depths of the Great Recession in 2010, the number of public schools projecting a negative cash balance by fiscal year 2013 soared to more than 30%, according to data compiled by Kogan. Over the decade after 2013, that percentage shrank to single-digits until 2026, when it shot up to 20%.
Christina Collins, executive director of Honesty for Ohio Education, said that schools around the state are facing financial issues right now.
“We aren’t just talking about a handful of schools – it is a lot of schools,” Collins said. “The problem is definitely rampant, and we are definitely in crisis more based on what we are seeing.”
Cincinnati school officials have been vocal about the problems the district is facing.
CPS’s Treasurer Michael Gustin has continuously emphasized the role of state legislators in the district’s turbulent finances. After Gov. Mike DeWine signed a series of bills in December slashing property taxes by roughly $3 billion to help homeowners cope with rising property values, Gustin said the district might consider last-ditch efforts like a new-money levy.
“That is an intended outcome from the people who passed this legislation, is that school districts will be back on the ballot far more often,” Gustin previously told The Enquirer. “You’re going to see a lot more districts statewide that are going to be in some sort of financial distress.”
“This is where we need to hold the state accountable for doing their part to fund public schools,” Gustin said.
Columbus City Schools Treasurer Ryan Cook agreed with that assessment during a May press conference, citing what he said was state disinvestment in public education over the years. The Republican-controlled state government has moved in favor of educational vouchers to help students fund their attendance at private, charter and religious schools.
“It’s absolutely a funding crisis,” Cook said. “This doesn’t just impact Columbus City Schools, it’s a real problem.”
But state legislators say that they’ve given more money than ever before to public education, even as enrollment generally declines across the state. Under the state budget approved in 2025, the Ohio General Assembly provided $120 million more for public schools through 2027 – although many schools are projected to lose funding under that formula.
State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said it may be appropriate for schools with declining enrollment to have reduced state funding, despite funding growing statewide overall in the past decade. Districts in these positions, he said, may need to consider cutting personnel.
“They’re always going to say they’re inadequately funded,” Brenner said. “It’s easier to blame someone else instead of managing your own district.”
Despite the fact that funding formula phase in is complete and school districts should be at 100% state funding, districts are seeing lower than anticipated numbers because certain items within the budget have not been adjusted for inflation.
Louisville City Schools outside Akron faces a deficit in fiscal year 2029. The district forecast projects a $3,041,387 shortfall.
Treasurer Derek Nottingham said since a renewal levy was passed in May, the district is now cash positive but still is in deficit spending, with all expenses surging thanks to inflation. Factors such as the average cost of a teacher have not been adjusted for at least six years.
The district is projected to get about $16.7 million in state funding for the upcoming fiscal year, down about $1 million from this year.
Louisville officials have reduced staffing by attrition for next school year and participate in consortiums and cohorts to get the best price for items they are going to purchase.
So is a shortfall in state funding to blame?
If districts are facing a budget deficit, Kogan said, they either need to look at expenses or revenue.
“Cutting expenses or raising taxes, it’s going to be politically a very difficult decision that a lot of people are going to be upset about,” Kogan said. “And some of that is going to depend on how much slack you have, how much you can cut without impacting learning.”
Kogan said that from his research, a significant factor in many district budget problems may be on the expenditure side. Using temporary pandemic-era emergency relief money to pay for employees, for example, is unsustainable and led to budget deficits when the funds expired in 2024.
Other districts, he said, are starting to see the impacts of property tax reform at the state level.
Collins said that public education is facing a “perfect storm” of an affordability crisis and property tax reform. Pandemic relief funding, she said, was used to sustain increasing operation costs and needs at a time when the state wasn’t helping.
“I think what we’re seeing is long-term neglect for our schools that had this temporary Band-Aid to fix it during these COVID years, and now that Band-Aid has been ripped off and the state has not stepped up to fulfill its portion,” Collins said.
Kogan pointed to a 2024 report from the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office that shows per-pupil funding has never been higher.
“It does suggest that state funding is not driving these deficits,” Kogan said.
Brenner said many of the schools facing budget deficits should take a hard look at their personnel expenditures.
“Is it possible that 120 districts could be making decisions that are just not the correct decisions that they should be making in order to be more efficient?” Brenner said.
Collins said the current situation comes down to the state not abiding by the DeRolph decision, a landmark 1997 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court that found that the state’s school funding method was unconstitutional and “fails to provide for a thorough and efficient system of common schools” by over-relying on property taxes.
The state’s highest court upheld that position in three subsequent rulings, including its final decision in December 2002 in which it relinquished further jurisdiction on the issue.
“That huge deficit in the state’s share for public education is what is causing such increasing burden on local communities through the levy process,” Collins said.
Jenkins said that while a comparison to the Great Recession isn’t necessarily “fair or unfair,” it was “another example of a time where maybe the underlying structure of how public schools are funded was exposed.”
“The stressors of that time showed how dependent we are on our local communities,” Jenkins said. “Even with the DeRolph case, we’re still pretty dependent on [local] property taxes.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati joins Ohio schools facing deficits at worst rate since Great Recession
Reporting by Cole Behrens, Amy L. Knapp and Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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By Cole Behrens, Amy L. Knapp and Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
