The whole concept of public schools is a progressive idea. How to pay for public schools has a progressive solution.
The notion that government can compel the payment of taxes to educate other people’s children was a radical idea and at one time was strongly opposed. Another progressive and radical idea is the notion that government should have the power to tax income, and at varying rates. This idea would have been strongly opposed by the founders, but, the right of government to implement a progressive tax system was enshrined in our Constitution as the 16th amendment in 1913. It was initiated by our Ohio Republican President, Howard Taft, who urged its passing.
In 2004, Ohio had a progressive income tax system with seven brackets. The top bracket taxed income in excess of $200,000 at 7.5%. Starting in 2005, the Republican Assemblies started changing the income tax system and, as of January 2026, Ohio has a flat 2.75% income tax. Today, 49% of the state revenue is from sales taxes and fees. Trashing the progressive income tax system and greatly increasing sales tax has made for an increasingly more regressive system — the lower a person’s income, the greater is the percentage of the income that goes to taxes.
In Ohio, the state government provides about 34% of the needed funding for public schools. This is much less than most states provide. Ohio is about 40 out of the 50 states. The state support was 44.8% in 2002. More and more there has been a shift from state support to local property taxes.
About $13.2 billion is raised each year by property taxes for the purpose of school operation; this doesn’t include building construction. The plan I am proposing is to implement a progressive income tax system that will raise $5.2 billion each year and to make changes in the business tax system to raise $1 billion. The idea is to use this $6.2 billion to reduce school property taxes by about one-half of what they are now.
Here is one possible chart showing progressive system to calculate a tax surcharge. This would be an additional tax, on top of the 2.75%, just for school property tax relief. For most citizens, the increase in income tax would be more than compensated by a decrease in their property tax.
