State Budget Proposal Would Cut Most of Beachwood's State Funding

Beachwood  schools' state funding, which makes up less than 3 percent of its total revenue, will be nearly eliminated in 2012 if Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s two-year budget plan is approved.

According to information released Thursday by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management, Beachwood’s 2012 state support is proposed at $21,453. In 2011, it received $884,000, which made up less than 3 percent of the district's revenue.

A statement released by the Ohio OBM indicates that the funding was determined based on several factors, including each school district’s property value, how much federal stimulus funding it received and its population.

These numbers were entered into a formula that was created to ease the burden of the loss in federal stimulus funds to schools that have become heavily dependent on them.

– the budget year beginning July 1, 2011.

This brings the total proposed cuts to Beachwood City Schools’ 2012 revenue to over $1.5 million, around 5 percent of its $33 million in total revenue.

In 2013, Beachwood City Schools would receive $227,490 under the proposal. That’s a cumulative loss of 31 percent of its state funding for the district, which is heavily funded by city taxes.

Nearby, Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District, which receives 17 percent of its revenue from the state, fared well in the proposal with a negligible cut in 2012 and an increase in 2013.