Cincinnati Public Schools

• Three budget cycles of cuts. CPS closed gaps of about $104M (FY2025), $52M (FY2026) and $59M (FY2027) by cutting roughly 550 positions, ending IB programs at three schools and imposing five unpaid furlough days; the FY2027 budget ($634.6M) is smaller than FY2025’s.
• Fiscal caution. On September 2, 2026 the state placed CPS in fiscal caution over a projected $44.5M deficit in FY2029; a corrective plan is due November 30, and the district says about $44M of cuts must be planned even if the levy passes.
• Issue 4. A new 7-mill, five-year operating levy: $66.3M a year, $245 per $100,000 of home value, CPS’s first new operating ask since 2016. The board first chose a 0.75% earned-income tax (5–2), then rescinded it a week later (6–1) after both county parties objected.
• A formula that treats Cincinnati as rich. Its large commercial and utility tax base means the state pays only about 27.5% of its formula base cost, against 57–77% for most big-city districts. The 2025–26 property-tax laws cost CPS about $10.9M a year and limit renewals of its three emergency levies ($165M, 26% of revenue) to five years.
• Choice. Of students living in the district in 2025-26, 30,155 attended CPS, 8,431 used EdChoice vouchers and 6,176 attended charter schools; CPS spends about $50M a year on transportation, including for private and charter students.
• Results improving from a low base. 3 stars on the 2025-26 report card (first time meeting standards) and the highest performance index of the eight big urban districts — but graduation fell to 80.6% for the class of 2025 and chronic absence was 45.6%.

What to watch

• November 3: Issue 4 (and Dayton’s 7-mill request, the other big-city levy).
• November 30: the fiscal-caution corrective plan, and any list of school closures or consolidations.
• The next teachers’ contract: the forecast assumes 0.35% salary growth a year.
• 2029–30: renewal of the $65M emergency levy, now limited to five years; the EdChoice appeal, in which CPS is a plaintiff.

Cincinnati enrolled 33,458 students in 2025-26. Enrollment peaked at 36,674 in 2019-20. Since 2006-07 it has changed −1.2%, against −19.2% for the regional peer median (within 50 miles) and −19.5% for the median Ohio district.

Students

Districts that serve free meals to every student report every student as economically disadvantaged. For the 123 Ohio districts where that raised the share by 25 points or more to 95% or above in one year, this briefing uses the district’s last share before the rise.

Where resident students go

Since 2021-22 the state pays community schools, EdChoice private schools and open-enrollment districts directly, so these students no longer appear as deductions in Cincinnati’s budget, but the district still receives no state aid for them and, for most private and charter students in grades K–8, must provide or pay for transportation.

Community

Home values against nearby districts

Across the five most recent Census releases (2016–20 to 2020–24), the median owner-occupied home in Cincinnati averaged $184,260, 126% above the median of the 1 districts within 50 miles ($81,480). That ranks highest of 2 in the area and at the 64th percentile of Ohio districts (state median $167,900).

U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, median value of owner-occupied homes (table B25077), in nominal dollars. Consecutive releases share four of their five survey years, so the average is a smoothed level rather than five independent years. Nearby districts are those whose NCES office address lies within 50 miles of Cincinnati's: Dayton (46 mi, $81,480).

Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Report Card and District Profile (Cupp) Report; U.S. Census ACS 5-year. Student characteristics compare with the peers; enrollment, school choice and community figures with the regional peers (within 50 miles): Dayton.

Cincinnati’s performance index — a weighted average of state test results on a 0–120 scale — was 71.0 in 2025-26, against 64.5 for the peer median and 88.3 for the median Ohio district (7th percentile).

Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Report Card. No state tests in 2019-20; star ratings began in 2022-23.

Cincinnati spent $21,511 per pupil on operations in 2024-25, against $20,666 for the peer median and $16,580 for the median Ohio district. Ohio’s formula assumes each district can raise a local share based on its property values and residents’ incomes; the state supplied 26% of Cincinnati’s revenue. At the end of FY2026 the district held $43.01 million in general-fund cash, an unreserved balance of 4.7% of a year’s spending.

ODEW District Profile (Cupp) Report; five-year forecast actuals (general operating funds, cash basis) as filed with ODEW.

Ohio’s H.B. 920 reduction factors cut the effective rate of voted levies as property values rise, so most levies raise a fixed number of dollars and districts must return to voters to keep pace; no district’s effective current-expense rate can fall below 20 mills. Cincinnati’s effective residential rate was 38.07 mills (Ohio median 24.39). Since January 2026, districts can no longer place new emergency, substitute or replacement levies on the ballot.

Past school tax issues

Cincinnati has put 6 school tax issues to voters since 2016; all passed. Statewide, the Ohio School Boards Association records 2,342 school tax issues from 2016 through May 2026; 66% passed, and 39% of new-money issues.

Ohio School Boards Association school election results (unofficial), 2016–2026.

Ohio Department of Taxation and ODEW District Profile Report (effective millage); U.S. Census ACS 5-year; Ohio School Boards Association election results.

Claims from the district, its supporters and critics, checked against state data, the district’s forecasts and audits, and rating-agency reports.

Sources: the district’s five-year forecasts, board resolutions and audited financial statements; Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and Department of Taxation data; county boards of elections; rating-agency reports; local news coverage.

Wherever this briefing sets Cincinnati beside other districts, it uses the groups below. A group figure is the middle value across its members, each counted equally, so one large member cannot dominate it.

Peers 12 districts

The 12 Ohio districts (city, local and exempted-village districts) most like Cincinnati on four equally weighted factors: total enrollment (compared as a ratio), operating spending per pupil, students per teacher and the share of economically disadvantaged students, each difference scaled by how much the factor varies across districts, and none more than two standard deviations away on any one. The group starts with nearby districts that match closely (within half a standard deviation on average) and fills the rest from anywhere in the state. Peers carry the achievement, spending and staffing comparisons.

Regional peers 1 districts

The 1 districts (city, local and exempted-village districts) within 50 miles of Cincinnati, straight line between district offices, whose profile on the same four factors is comparable: on average within one standard deviation. Fewer than five comparable districts lie within 25 miles, and only 1 within 50, so the group is smaller than usual. They carry enrollment, property taxes and home values, and their median sits beneath the peer median elsewhere. A district in both groups appears in both lists.

“Ohio median” is the middle value across Ohio’s city, local and exempted-village school districts; career centers and community schools are left out.