CINCINNATI — As federal and state funding for public education undergoes a significant shift, we took your concerns about the Cincinnati Public Schools budget process to Superintendent Shauna Murphy.
The state budget is due June 30, and different versions of the budget proposed by Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio House of Representatives have allocated different amounts to public schools. As the state's biennium budget goes to the Senate for their consideration, Murphy asked lawmakers to weigh public education as a priority.
"Treat us fairly," she said. "Be fair to public education. It's fine that people want to fund private and parochial schools. That's great, but don't do it off the backs of public taxpayers. Please be fair to our children."
WATCH: We speak one-on-one with the CPS superintendent
The superintendent hosted her first of three town halls Tuesday to hear from parents and students about the implementation of the district's Phase II restructuring, how state lawmakers are impacting the district's budgeting process and more.
Ahead of the meeting, we posted on Facebook asking what you'd like to know about the potential that CPS will lose funding from the state or federal government. Here are Murphy's answers to some of your questions.
Question: Federally, there are a lot of cuts being made. At the state, we don't really know where we are right now with the budget. How do you navigate all of that?
Answer: "So, this is ... right now, all about the unknown. Quite frankly, we won't know where the bottom line is until June."
Q: If further cuts are necessary, would it come from the top down — administration before teachers?
A: "Yeah, and you'll remember last spring, that's exactly what we did. We were very hands-off with the classroom, keeping school houses intact, and we did a lot of cutting with administration that you see coming out of central office."
Q: How would the district's most vulnerable populations, like students who need special education, be impacted by possible cuts in federal funding?
A: "We don't know how to interpret that yet, so we're doing the very best we can right now with what we've had along the way."
At the end of Tuesday's town hall, state Rep. Sedrick Denson called for families to reach out to their state legislators, telling them there's still time to let officials know how they feel about the budget. Murphy said having a strong public school district is important no matter the city or schools.
"I need people to share their voice," Murphy said. "Whether people have a child in Cincinnati Public Schools or not, we need our communities to be strong and safe, and the only way to do that is to have a solid school district."
Murphy is hosting two more town halls. The first at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 17 at Gamble Montessori High School. Then, another at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 28, at the CPS Education Center.
