The Sad Story of Sylvania City Schools

August 25, 2026

Good Tuesday morning,

Vouchers Hurt Sylvania City schools, its students, educators, parents, taxpayers – the entire community.

The Toledo Blade is reporting that on Monday, the Sylvania City Schools Board of Education in Lucas County near Toledo passed a resolution approving $11.3 million in cuts if an upcoming levy on the November ballot fails.

On Aug. 4, Superintendent Tim Zieroff said those cuts would be $4.2 million for teaching and learning programs, $1 million for special education, $745,000 in transportation, $1.2 for administration, $1.3 million for student support services, $857,000 for business operations and $1.7 million for student activities.

Kindergarten would go from full-day to half-day, and the district would eliminate all extracurricular activities, athletics, and high school transportation services.

Here’s the really sad part: Sylvania’s Superintendent, Treasurer and School Board members are doing a great job in a great district, but the deck is stacked against them.

While pro-voucher lawmakers were funneling $1.7 billion to EdChoice private school voucher schools, mostly religious, for mostly wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in private schools, they were actually cutting funding to Sylvania City Schools.

In the current two-year state budget, state funding for Sylvania goes down by $921,967, according to Policy Matters Ohio.

It gets even worse when you take into consideration how much money Sylvania would have received under the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding plan.

When pro-voucher lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine abandoned Cupp Patterson, it cost Sylvania $5,020,047, according to Policy Matters.

This is happening in public school district after public school district.

The state is backing away from its obligation to fund schools.

It bears repeating: the state’s share of paying for local schools was as high as 47 percent in 1999. This school year, the state’s share will drop to 32 percent.

What can public schools do other than ask voters to support higher local taxes or make draconian cuts in service for their students?

This is why we are suing. 

We’re thankful Sylvania City Schools joined our lawsuit.

Check out our new map on our home page, and find out if your district is part of our lawsuit here.

We think every public school should join our lawsuit to stand up for students, educators, taxpayers and their communities.

Join our lawsuit here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio