Our team was hard at work this week highlighting changes big and small ushered in by the pending Ohio budget, the Trump Administration’s far-reaching actions, and much more.
Let’s get straight into it. As always, I’m more than happy to take questions, tips, or concerns. I can be reached at Avery.Kreemer@coxinc.com or on X at @AveryKreemer.
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State budget proposes $100M public school funding slash
• The story: Ohio’s proposed two-year budget would cut funding to public schools and raise voucher spending and charter school funding, according to a new, nonpartisan legislative analysis.
• Figures: Under the current proposal,public school funding would be reduced by $103.4 million over the biennium. State-issued vouchers for private school students would see a $265.4 million increase and charter schools would get a $221.8 million increase over the same period.
• Patchwork: Ohio has 1.48 million kids in traditional public schools and under 200,000 kids in private schools — a figure the state hopes will grow following the creation of Ohio’s universal private school voucher system.
• Context: Ohio’s public schools are funded through a combination of state tax dollars and local property tax dollars. The amount each district gets from those pots of money is determined by a state formula which, as applied, sets the average state share of school funding at about 32% in the proposed budget. The state’s share is 38% today.
• Local impacts: Local districts that would see decreases in the percentage of state funding they’d get include Fairborn, Xenia, Kettering, Brookville, Huber Heights, Bethel Local, Vandalia, Dayton, Oakwood, Trotwood-Madison, Valley View and many others.
• What’s next: Public education will be a key point of debate in the deliberations of the state budget, which has a long way to go in both the Ohio House and Senate before it’s signed into law this summer.
How we’re covering the Trump Administration’s local impact
• The stage: There’s been a flurry of activity in the month since President Donald Trump took office. In that time, our newsrooms have received a steady stream of communication from readers who either have questions about Trump’s policies or input on what they’d like to see covered.
• Our role: As a local news organization, our focus is on the impact the Trump Administration’s decisions will have on our community, whether it regards Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, immigration, education, healthcare, agriculture, the region’s economy or anything else.
• Our plan: We will produce a weekly roundup of stories about local impacts from these policy changes, as well as stories from our national content partners that are tracking major federal policy changes each week. This roundup is meant to be brief and to the point — so you can get a sense of the big picture while having the option to go deeper on topics that interest you.
• Water foul: Montgomery County officials allege that Dayton — the region’s largest water provider supplying drinking water to the city and hundreds of thousands of residents in Montgomery and Greene counties — breached its county contract by overcharging the county more than $14 million since 2018 and not delivering potable water to county customers. Sydney Dawes has the full story.
• Violence: In his annual State of the City address this week, Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. said he believes the city can become one of the best places in the country to live, work, and play, but the mayor said Dayton must first get community violence under control, especially incidents involving young people. Cornelius Frolik has the story.
• Airport turbulence: Despite boardings increasing for the fourth straight year in 2024, Dayton International Airport has yet to recover from pre-pandemic levels of traffic, which even then were trending downward.Cornelius Frolik again has the story.
State political news of the week
• Reefer reform: The state Senate is considering a bill from a local lawmaker that would significantly change Ohio’s voter-passed recreational marijuana laws, placing further limits on potency, prohibiting sharing, and halving the state’s limit on home-grow plants. Here’s my story.
• Security check: The Ohio Department of Public Safety is requesting about $5.3 million in state funding to help pay for safety and security measures for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton in May. Here’s the story from Cornelius Frolik and myself.
• Grain reaction: A Trump administration proposal to cut federal foreign aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development could hurt Ohio farmers that traditionally fulfill grain and dairy orders by the agency. Sydney Dawes has the story.
• Trump stuff: Remember that Trump Administration roundup I mentioned at the start of this newsletter? Here’s the first edition from Sydney Dawes last week, which ranges in focus from DOGE-related job cuts in Tipp City to the Department of Defense return-to-office mandate impacting Wright-Patt.
• VA layoffs: The Department of Veterans Affairs dismissed more than 1,000 employees amid reports that the Trump Administration was dismissing thousands of probationary employees across the federal government. It’s not yet known if the cuts impact Dayton VA Medical Center’s 2,355 full-time employees. Thomas Gnau has the story.
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