For years, the Ohio legislature has pushed to have the state pay a smaller and smaller share of the cost of running Ohio's public schools, placing a bigger and bigger burden on local property taxpayers to make up the difference. Now, Ohio lawmakers are pushing a whole raft of property tax reform bills, many with potentially disastrous consequences for public school students across the state. So, what can the state actually do to provide meaningful property tax relief without doing so on the backs of the public schools that serve 90 percent of students in our state? To understand where we should go from here, we have to understand how we got to this pressure point. In Part 1 of this special two-part conversation, we take a deeper dive into how Ohio's property taxes work and what's driving a spike in property tax bills in recent years.

LISTEN TO PART 2 |Click here to hear the second half of the conversation with Dr. Howard Fleeter, where we look at what the state could do to enact potential property tax policy changes without devastating Ohio's public schools.

TAKE ACTION | House Bill 186 is one of several property tax bills making its way through the General Assembly right now. But, the substitute version of HB 186 under consideration would result in a huge, devastating funding cut for hundreds of Ohio school districts, especially in rural communities. Click here to see how your district would be impacted and to tell your lawmaker to oppose the amended version of HB 186. 

READ THE REPORT | Learn more in the Ohio Education Policy Insitute's new 'Analysis of Residential Property Taxes in Ohio: A Balanced Approach to Reform'

INTO THE ARCHIVES | Dr. Fleeter was a Public Education Matters guest way back in the first season of this podcast as we worked to understand Ohio's school funding formula - or lack thereof back at that point. Click here to listen.

Featured Public Education Matters guest: 

• Dr. Howard Fleeter, economist and Ohio Education Policy Institute consultant
  • Dr. Howard B. Fleeter received his Ph.D in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990.  He was a faculty member in the School of Public Policy and Management at Ohio State University from 1989-1999, where he taught courses in Public Sector Economics, Public Finance, and State and Local Government Finance.  He was a four-time recipient of the School’s “Faculty of the Year” award for excellence in teaching.  Dr. Fleeter was also a faculty member in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1999-2001, where he taught courses in the Economics of Education and School Finance. 
  • Dr. Fleeter's research has focused on issues of education finance, education policy, and state and local tax policy and he is the author of numerous policy studies and academic journal articles on these topics.  Since his 1992 report, "Equity, Adequacy and Reliability in Ohio Education Finance" for Governor Voinovich's Education Management Council he has been one of the state’s leading experts on Education Finance.  He has worked extensively with Ohio education policy-makers to improve the state's school funding system for more than 25 years.  He is currently the owner of the state and local government finance and tax policy consulting firm Howard Fleeter & Associates and serves as a research consultant on education finance and policy issues for the Ohio Education Policy Institute.  

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About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents nearly 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Public Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May 2020, after a ten-year career as an Emmy Award-winning television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She lives in Central Ohio with her husband and two young children. 

This episode was recorded on October 7, 2025.