Amy Acton, Ohio’s controversial former director of public health and 2026 gubernatorial candidate, wants to use potential changes to school funding as a cudgel to score political points.
The Fair School Funding plan, which Ohio lawmakers passed in 2021, ostensibly created a new school funding system for the state’s K-12 schools. The plan is colloquially known as “Cupp-Patterson,” named after the lawmakers who developed it: former state Reps. Bob Cupp, R-Lima, and John Patterson, D-Jefferson.
Now, lawmakers say the funding plan is “unsustainable.”
“You can’t bind four years later what a General Assembly could do. That’s because you don’t know how much money you’re going to have and all of that. So having said that, I don’t think there is a third phase to Cupp-Patterson,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, as saying. “I think those increases in funding are unsustainable.”
“We have to look at whether these dollars are being spent wisely in some districts,” Huffman added, per the Statehouse News Bureau report.
According to a report from News 5 Cleveland, Huffman suggested cutting at least $650 million in public education spending from the budget. He noted that the state’s budget will have less money this year because fewer federal COVID tax dollars are flowing to states, including Ohio.
“That’s often how a lot of projects go — early on it doesn’t cost very [much] money — but some other governor or General Assembly will have to figure out how to pay for it,” the outlet quoted Huffman as saying. “As it turns out, I am the other General Assembly years in the future, or possibly am, and I don’t think the spending is sustainable.”
The perspective has drawn a rebuke from groups such as Vouchers Hurt Ohio, which is suing to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s EdChoice school voucher program.
Acton, appointed as director of the Ohio Department of Health by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in February 2019, vaguely promises to help the Buckeye State’s students.
“This is not OK,” Acton, who has never held elected public office, said in a post to X. “Public schools saved my life and as Governor I’ll work with Ohioans on both sides of the aisle who want to stand up for our kids and give them the best possible chance at success.”
Acton’s team has not made the former health director and a former volunteer for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama available for an interview with Ohio.news. The doctor’s website does not include policy information about her public education plans.
“Thank you for reaching out,” the campaign said in a Tuesday email to Ohio.news. “We’ve received a high volume of requests and will get back to you as soon as possible.”
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has identified several areas where lawmakers should consider improvements, including weakened incentives for interdistrict open enrollment, which may lead some districts to curtail open enrollment and the continued use of guarantees or “excess dollars that shield districts from funding reductions otherwise prescribed by the formula.”
“The Cupp-Patterson school funding plan was heralded as a ‘fair’ and ‘constitutional’ replacement for Ohio’s previous formula,” the institute said in a post to X. “After four years of implementation, it’s clear there is still room for improvement.”
Meanwhile, The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based think tank, wants lawmakers to remember their promise to make “school choice universally available.”
According to the think tank, lawmakers allowed all families to secure EdChoice scholarships in the last operating budget, “effectively making school choice universal throughout the state.” The scholarships provide “students from designated public schools the opportunity to attend participating private schools.”
