More levies, more levies, more levies

October 7, 2025

Good Tuesday morning,

When anti-public school lawmakers abandoned the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan and decided to siphon $1.7 billion in tax dollars away to private school vouchers, the pressure to fill the local void with more and more levies was inevitable.

We are less than five weeks from Election Day and more and more districts have levies on the ballot.

What did we expect?

Here’s the rub. These levies cause a great deal of friction and fractions in our local communities and anti-public school lawmakers in Columbus don’t mind that at all.

Another problem: What happens when voters, who are already upset about rising property taxes, say no to the levy?

In Westerville, north of Columbus, the school board has already approved $20 million in budget cuts if their budget fails in November.

The district already reduced its budget by $4.8 million when a levy failed in March.

Westerville will cut 10 administrative positions, up to 44 elementary school jobs, including librarians, art, physical ed and music teachers. The district will be forced to eliminate 31 middle school positions, including math, science and reading, and 19 positions in the high school, including AP and College Credit Plus offerings.

In all, at least 124 positions could be eliminated if the levy fails.

Policy Matters Ohio analyzed the two-year budget and the loss of state funding for each school district when lawmakers shelved the Fair School Funding Plan.

Westerville schools, if Cupp Patterson were fully funded, would have received an additional $6 million from the state. This funding would help tremendously, but instead lawmakers are shifting precious tax dollars to private, religious schools and giving refunds and rebates to wealthy parents to enroll their children in those schools.

Westerville is just one example of the wave of levies to come because the state is once again shirking its responsibility to fully fund public schools as required by the Ohio Constitution.

This is why we are suing and why Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled earlier this year that the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts.

Is your district part of our historic lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio