COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The wrangling started Tuesday over Gov. Strickland's $55 billion state budget and your child's education is caught in the middle.
The complex proposal attempts to address a $7 billion revenue shortfall, NBC 4's Candice Lee reported.
Budget Director Pari Sabety faced tough questions about the governor's new funding formula for schools during testimony Tuesday afternoon before the house finance committee.
It appears that members from both sides of the aisle are concerned that smaller districts will suffer.
Rep. Randy Gardner, a house Republican questioned Sabety about the fairness of the evidence-based model, noting a fax he received from a concerned superintendent.
"I have some that have gotten 15 percent increases proposed and some that have 2 percent reductions," Gardner said.
Sabety countered Gardner's accusation, saying all but 24 school districts get more money when the funding model is fully phased in.
"We are moving from one complex system the foundation funding system with all of the incentives and patchwork of fixes that grew up over 50 years to a simpler system, so there are bound to be changes," Sabety said.
Questions over the education dominated the two-hour session, including legal concerns.
"What aspects of this plan speaks specifically to the constitutionality of that system? What fixes that constitutional problem?" Rep. Stephen Dyer.
"We believe this education solution is constitutional. The obligation of the constitution to us is to provide a thorough and efficient system of education," Sabety said.
Other issues discussed before the committee included cuts in funding to prisons and concerns the governor's budget relies too much on federal stimulus dollars.
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