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Good Tuesday morning,

While you’re trying to stay warm, we recommend you stay connected to Vouchers Hurt Ohio and our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the harmful private school voucher scheme known as EdChoice.

You are already receiving our weekly email, but do you know others who are interested in following Vouchers Hurt Ohio?

Please share this link with them.

Our social media presence is strong and growing, and we post regularly about the lawsuit, the issues surrounding vouchers, and even what is happening in other states.

We are not suing Ohio in a vacuum. In state after state where anti-public school groups have pushed to expand vouchers, grassroots organizations like Vouchers Hurt Ohio have sprung up in opposition.

Our Facebook page now has more than 3,000 followers, and is growing every day. We post shareable images, links to news stories in Ohio and elsewhere, and information about how vouchers are hurting our students, educators, parents, taxpayers, and others.

In the past week, we shared news articles about how vouchers are forcing local homeowners to pay more in property taxes, a podcast from Cleveland.com that dug into how lawmakers created a $1 billion private school voucher program without asking voters, share badges, and a continuing look at the impact of the legislature abandoning the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding plan.

In Valley View Local, in Montgomery County, for example, lawmakers shortchanged the public school students in Valley View by $3.47 million, as they siphon away $1.7 billion in public tax dollars for private school vouchers in the next two years.

Follow us here.

We are seeing tremendous growth on our X or Twitter page. Follow us here.

And we post regularly on Instagram as well. Check our Instagram page out here.

You can find quick links to all these pages and more information at our website: vouchershurtohio.com.

As you know, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled in our favor on three counts and found the EdChoice private school funding scheme unconstitutional in June, 2025.

This year, our case will be heard before the 10th District Court of Appeals, where we believe once again EdChoice will be found unconstitutional.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

What a headline!

History Isn’t On The Side Of Those Claiming Ohio Must Fund Religious Schools.

It appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on January 14 with the subhead: A 240-year-old idea now on trial in Ohio.

Written by Mike Curtin, the column is the second in a series of deep dives by the former Dispatch Editor, Associate Publisher, and two-term state lawmaker, delving into Ohio’s history of funding public schools and the clear intent of our forebears, as outlined in the Ohio Constitution, that public tax dollars shall not be used to pay for private, religious education.

This is the basis of our historic lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher program, which will siphon $1.7 billion away in tax dollars from public schools over the next two years.

Curtin’s latest column is a must-read because he uses a scalpel to take apart a facetious argument made at a press conference by House Speaker Matt Huffman, who, with a straight face, dared to utter the following words: “The Ohio Constitution is unique. It’s the only state constitution in the United States that requires the funding of religious education by the state.”

Huffman actually said this. He’s actually the Speaker of the Ohio House, and he is the biggest cheerleader in our state for giving away hundreds of millions of tax dollars to mostly wealthy families who already had enrolled their children in mostly religious schools.

In a master class, Curtin takes Huffman apart with logic, history, and a great deal of research. You can read his column here.

Curtin writes: “Huffman’s arguments suggest the Ohio Constitution’s religious liberty clause, as part of the Bill of Rights, is a fundamental right that supersedes the clear language of another part of the Constitution – the education clause (Article VI, Section 2). Since 1851, that clause has required that Ohio’s school funds support only common (public) schools.

“But what does Ohio’s religious liberty clause really say? How were its words chosen by lawmakers and understood by the public – at the time of adoption and for more than a quarter century afterwards? And how has it been interpreted by the Ohio Supreme Court,”  Curtin writes.

Spoiler alert: The Ohio Supreme Court has twice, in 1872 and 1945, issued unanimous decisions rejecting “Huffman-like interpretations of the religious liberty clause.”

Curtin notes: “More recently, in April, 1976, the Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission examined Article 1, Section 7 along with the rest of the Bill of Rights.”

“The 32-member commission, in recommending no change to the religious liberty clause, cited (the 1872 Ohio Supreme Court case), and commented: “The legislature cannot promote Christianity or any other belief beyond passing laws to protect them from outside interference.”

Curtin demonstrates clearly there is a big difference, when it comes to history and law, between looking it up, and just plain making it up.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

Yesterday, our attorneys, Miriam Fair and Mark I. Wallach, filed a reply brief in our lawsuit that is now before the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals.

As you know, on June 24, 2025, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled the EdChoice voucher program unconstitutional on three of the five counts in our case.

Judge Page agreed with us that the EdChoice vouchers create a separate and unequal system of uncommon schools open to the few and increasingly privileged, and that the Ohio Constitution is clear that lawmakers shall create a single system of common schools open to all students for the common good.

Judge Page also ruled the state could not shortchange the public school system and not fund the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding at a constitutional level at the same time lawmakers were ready to spend $1.7 billion on EdChoice vouchers in the next two years.

Judge Page also noted the Ohio Constitution is crystal clear when it says no religious schools should receive tax dollars intended for public schools.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and intervenors, including lawyers hired by pro-voucher, anti-public school billionaires from out-of-state, appealed and responded with briefs that can only be classified as “weak tea.”

Yesterday, our lawyers took apart their lawyers’ arguments. You can read the reply brief filed by Fair and Wallachhere.

Just as importantly, our team asked the 10th District Court of Appeals to revisit our Count 5 in the case, which challenges the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher program based on the Equal Protection clause in the Ohio Constitution.

Judge Page ruled in favor of the state and against us on this count.

“The state spends 3-4 times less for public education of (public school students) than it does for their private school counterparts via vouchers. The EdChoice program violates Article 1, Section 2, of Ohio’s Constitution; (public school) students ask this Court to reverse the trial court and grant them summary judgment on Count V,” Fair and Wallach wrote in their reply brief.

They go on to say: “And the right to choose public education cannot be conditioned on accepting 3-4 times less in per pupil funding for that education. In praising school choice, the legislature cannot punish the choice of public education, the only option it is constitutionally mandated to secure,” Fair and Wallach write.

Private schools receive $6,166 for K-8 students and $8,408 for high school students. Richmond Heights receives $1,530 for a student in state funding.

Fair and Wallach point out that the state is giving a $2,000 per pupil bonus to private schools for high school students because pro-voucher attorneys attest that private schools charge more for high school students.

What?

Public schools do not receive a similar bonus.

As Fair and Wallach point out, “either it costs more to educate high school students, or it doesn’t.”

This boils the blood a little, doesn’t it?

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

Happy New Year!

On June 24, 2025, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts.

As expected, the Ohio Attorney General appealed the case to the 10th District Court of Appeals.

In 2026, we expect the case will be decided.

The paperwork from both sides is due a week from today on January 13, and oral arguments in the case should begin sometime in late spring or early summer.

This means we should have a decision later this year or early 2027.

Our attorneys were confident we had a strong case before Judge Page, and they were right.

Judge Page ruled EdChoice is unconstitutional because 1) it creates a separate and unequal system of common schools open to the few and not all children, 2) siphons public tax dollars ($1.7 billion in the next two years) from an underfunded system of public schools, and it violates a clause in the constitution that forbids public tax dollars from going to private religious schools.

The case will end up in the Ohio Supreme Court, but we only need to prevail on one count for EdChoice to be ruled unconstitutional.

And if we win, the legislature and the governor will not be able to send tax dollars to private schools.

Our case has received a great deal of attention in the media and on social media, and it’s clear that when ordinary Ohioans discover how vouchers are harming local schools, students, teachers, taxpayers, and communities, they become upset and want to get involved.

Our grassroots effort is growing as fast as our coalition.

Ohioans understand the voucher scheme is a billion-dollar boondoggle for private, mostly religious schools, and a refund and rebate for mostly wealthy families using the vouchers because the vast majority of them had their children in private schools already.

These are facts the 10th District Court and the Ohio Supreme Court can’t ignore or deny.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

There are truth tellers in this world, such as Bill Phillis, who began his public education career in 1958 and was the driving force behind the DeRolph lawsuit that ruled the way the state funds schools to be unconstitutional.

And then there are those whose names we shall not dignify, but who spread lies and misinformation because they embrace ideology over facts.

Read a recent opinion piece by Phillis in the Dispatch on the issue of accountability in the EdChoice private school voucher program.

Philis writes “nonprofit organizations, including private schools that receive public funds should be transparent and accountable for the public funds they spend.”

“Many private schools receive more than 80 percent of their budget from taxpayers in terms of vouchers, Nonpublic Administrative Cost Reimbursement, and Auxiliary Services, as well as student transportation.”

He continues: “Private schools received over $1.2 billion tax dollars in fiscal year 2025 from vouchers, direct service payments and student transportation with no transparency or accountability to the public.”

Phillis asks these questions:

“Are private school board members elected by the public?”

“Do private schools issue state report cards to the public?”

“Are the salaries of private school personnel published in the newspaper?”

“Does the Auditor of State audit private school finances?”

“Are private schools subject to the state’s Sunshine Laws?”

“Are private schools required to enroll all students that apply?”

“Do private school students enjoy due process of law with regard to suspensions, expulsion and discipline?”

“Are private schools subject to state and federal laws regarding the rights of children with disabilities?”

The answer to all the above questions is NO!

There is zero financial or academic accountability in the EdChoice voucher program that will siphon $1.7 billion from our public schools in the next two years.

If you ask the same questions posed by Phillis of public schools, the answer to each and all is YES.

This is why we are suing the state and winning.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio