Bullying Backfires

March 3, 2026

Good Tuesday morning,

The pro-voucher crowd continues to struggle to recover from the backlash following state Rep. Jamie Callender’s “Public School Bully Bill.”

A few weeks ago, Callender introduced legislation to punish the more than 330 public schools that are suing the state (and winning) over the $1.7 billion private school voucher program known as EdChoice.

Callender, who was cocky at first, quickly went into hiding when his scheme backfired in a major way.

No wonder. He got zero good press. In fact, the media rightly put a white-hot spotlight on his inane idea and rightly called him out for attempting to bully school districts.

No media outlet was more direct than the Cleveland Plain Dealer | cleveland.com, whose reporter Laura Hancock first broke the story.

“You can’t be a little bit unconstitutional:” Ohio lawmaker’s attack on schools is backfiring” read the Cleveland Plain Dealer headline. Listen to the podcast here.

Chris Quinn, the newspaper’s editor, said in a podcast: “Just like you can’t be a little bit pregnant, you can’t be a little bit unconstitutional. If it’s unconstitutional to penalize people for taking advantage of their First Amendment rights, it doesn’t matter what the penalty is. It’s illegal. This is flat out illegal. It’s wrong.”

Laura Johnston, with the Plain Dealer, said the message from schools is clear: ” ‘We’ve tried telling you this in the legislative branch, we’ve tried appealing to the executive branch, and all we’ve got left is the judicial branch.’ That is the check of government. That is how government powers work.”

She also chastised Callender for ducking reporters after the backlash.

“That’s really cowardly,” Johnston said about Callender.

We also stood up to Callender and his “Public School Bully Bill.”

Vouchers Hurt Ohio held a press conference to point out the unconstitutionality of Callender’s ideas, and how we would immediately go to court and seek an injunction should the legislature be brazen enough to pass it. Watch the press conference here.

You beat bullies by standing up to them. You don’t let them bully you.

We stood up to the bully.

We’re going to continue to stand up to the bully.

Are you with us? Has your school district joined our lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Isn’t it time you stood with the 330 other public school districts on behalf of your students, families, taxpayers, and communities and said enough is enough!

Join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio