Schools throughout the state will have some tough decisions to make as education will see nearly a $3 billion decrease out of the state's budget.
Elida schools is just one district that is already planning for the upcoming shortfall of money coming from the state. They need to make up $2 million because of the loss of state aid and the loss on inventory tax. The school board passed a resolution for a .75% earned income tax levy that they will ask for from the voters in the district in November. Elida schools has already made cuts across the board including Gomer closing down this year. They are quickly running out of things to cut to save money.
Joel Parker, Elida schools treasurer, said "for us we're going to be down approximately $700,000 in state aid. There's been a lot of cuts to education. We've made a lot of cuts in our district. The last three years we've cut a lot of programs that's really going to impact students and teachers and we're getting to that point where we really need to look at the next five years." Parker says with the loss in state funding schools will see a shift from state funding to local funding.
