Cutting $1.8 billion in state funding for public schools in the 2011 biennial budget has affected districts across Ohio. Never would have seen that one coming, right?

Of the 172 of Ohio's 613 K-12 school districts that responded to a Policy Matters Ohio survey, 65 percent said their planned spending was greater than their expected revenues. That's up from 45 percent in 2010.

If you've been reading your local paper, you've seen the stories about staff cutbacks and program cuts that districts made to close that budget gap. This report puts some numbers behind those stories:

• 20 percent of districts said they had budget gaps of 5-10 percent in 2011, up from 7 percent in 2010;
• The pain is shared: A majority of rural, suburban and urban districts reported budget deficits in 2011. Even most - 74 percent - of suburban districts with high median incomes reported deficits. (The report didn't include major urban districts in this area because too few responded.)
• Staff attrition was the most popular way to cut costs. Sixty-seven percent of districts reported doing that.
• Farther down the cost-cutting list: Cutting materials, supplies or equipment (reported by 44 percent of districts), pay-to-play (19 percent) and reducing course offerings (15 percent).
• Least common cost-cutting move: Cutting "the arts" (12 percent). (See other steps districts have taken here.)
• Few districts want to go to voters. Seventy-three percent said they had no plans to put a levy on the ballot in 2012.
• And about 45 percent of districts reported having fewer students in 2011 than 2010.

The survey was conducted before the defeat of Issue 2, the referendum on collective bargaining law Senate Bill 5. SB 5 would have eliminated the requirement that schools collectively bargain over wages, hours and working conditions. It would also have prohibited collective bargaining over maximum class sizes.

If it had passed, SB 5 would have given school boards more power to control costs.

Voters said "no" to SB 5. But this week, Republican House leaders said parts of the bill could reappear.