COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio consistently ranks between 10th and 15th in education scores nationally. Advocates and political leaders are split on how to improve results.
Ohio recently received its state and federal report card results, and more than 90% of Ohio districts met state standards. Leaders hope to improve that number, but there is debate over whether implementing stricter standards or fully funding the state’s education formula is the best place to start.
Ohio’s state report cards help track how individual schools and districts are performing, balancing education standards with other benchmarks of success. The report cards operate on a five-star scale, where five stars significantly exceed state standards and three stars meet state standards.
For the 2024-25 school year, Ohio recognized 68 all-around five-star districts. Most of Ohio’s 611 districts met or exceeded state standards, with just 57 under the three-star rank. Of those 57, 13 districts received two stars, the lowest scores of this year. See previous coverage of state report cards in the video player above.
Jeff Wensing, president of the Ohio Education Association, said it is clear that enacted state standards are already producing good results. In June, the state approved school funding for the next two years, but Wensing said they did not implement the funding plan fully, costing districts $2.75 billion over the next two years. He said the path to higher success rates relies on increased state funding.
On the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, Ohio ranked above average for fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math, ranging from 11th and 14th for individual scores. Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for conservative education nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said he wants to see Ohio break the top 10 by implementing consequences for low-performing districts.
“What was has been harder for Ohio to do is sort of walk the walk and back up their talk with actual accountability policies, actual education reforms that reward merit and performance and weed out underperforming schools or underperforming teachers,” Churchill, who felt the state already funds schools significantly, said.
Although Ohio districts are all graded on the same report card, their circumstances differ significantly. Only 27% of Ohio districts are suburban with low poverty rates, but that subgroup represented two-thirds of all five-star awardees. Meanwhile, all of the lowest-scoring districts had high rates of student poverty.
High student poverty correlates with lower performance scores, and it also correlates with funding ability. Ohio funds schools through a complicated formula that splits funding between state support and local tax revenue. One factor examines the capacity for local funding by comparing property values and incomes within district boundaries, and each district has a local funding capacity per student estimate.
Although there are some five-star districts that have low funding capacity estimates, by and large, the highest-rated districts also had better local funding. On average, Ohio’s five-star districts have $8,136.37 per pupil in local support capacity estimates; by comparison, Ohio’s two-star districts averaged $3,534.55 per pupil. Of 68 five-star districts, 64 had higher funding capacities than the two-star average.
Although stricter standards and increased funding could both be enacted, it is likely one will be favored. Candidates for the 2026 governor’s race are similarly split on their preferred path forward, with Republican Vivek Ramaswamy asking for more accountability and Democrat Amy Acton pushing for full funding.
Philip Stein, Acton’s campaign manager, said Acton wants to fully implement funding for public schools. She also intends to tamp down state funding for publicly funded vouchers for students to attend private schools and use the savings to reinvest in public districts.
“Under Vivek’s plan, our public schools remain badly underfunded and saddled with tired gimmicks that haven’t worked, while billions are sent to private schools that most can’t afford and where there are neither standards nor basic transparency as to how public dollars are being spent,” Stein said.
Ramaswamy, who favors the state’s voucher system, wants students to be required to pass the third-grade reading test before advancing to fourth grade and wants to establish algebra competence by high school. Holding back third-grade students was state law, but since 2023, students can override the recommendation with a parent request. He intends to reverse the decision.
“The key to fixing public education is to bring back something we’ve lost: standards,” Ramaswamy said.
David Axner, executive director of the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, said he would hope any changes to measuring standards would include an accurate comparison between districts and nonpublic schools. He also said he would hope programs would continue to be funded and that standards changes could be used to help schools succeed.
“It would be nice if … those comparisons/reports would not be used as punitive, but as an answer to beneficial support,” Axner said. “I think Ohio would be a better place.”
