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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

Good Tuesday morning,

The Ohio School Boards Association annual convention in Columbus this year brought together 6,500 school board members, newly elected and incumbents, superintendents and school treasurers from across the state.

Spoiler alert: The private school voucher scheme that is taking $1.7 billion away from public schools for mostly wealthy families and mostly religious schools was the number one issue on the minds of the gathered educators.

Denis Smith, a retired school administrator, worked our Vouchers Hurt Ohio booth at the OSBA convention and writes about his experience in the Ohio Capital Journal. Read his story here.

“That concern about dwindling state support for public education came through loud and clear from school board members who stopped by the…exhibit booth to offer their concerns about the expansion of vouchers and the harm they inflict on public schools,” Smith writes.

“As a volunteer at the conference for the last 14 years, there is no question that the response from board members I spoke with last week about the Ohio legislature’s continued bad behavior directed at public education was the strongest during the time period,” Smith writes.

A packed room of educators crammed into a presentation on the voucher lawsuit by the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding, and Vouchers Hurt Ohio.

Smith writes about some of the educators he talked to at our booth.

A few examples:

“I’m a lifelong Republican,” a school board member from Southwest Ohio told Smith, “but the harm done to public education by the legislature has to stop.”

Another board member, also from Southwest Ohio, said, “I’ve personally supported Catholic schools over the years, but the vouchers are wrong and are harming public education.”

Jeanne Melvin, President of Public Education Partners, told Smith:

“Ever since the judge ruled in June that Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program is unconstitutional, opinion has changed. School district leaders and residents finally realize that the voucher agenda was created by a legislature that seeks to privatize our system of public schools, and they are angry. The success of pro-public education board candidates and school levies this election cycle has ignited a passion to fight back,” Melvin told Smith.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

Remember that old saying: don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back? Well, don’t be surprised to see a number of state lawmakers in casts.

Legislative leaders have been jumping up and down with pretend joy over their recent efforts to pass laws addressing the rising property tax issues across the state.

As Thomas Suddes, a statewide columnist notes, it’s pure “baloney.”

“What legislators actually did was pass the buck, as usual, to voters to raise more local money for schools by passing more property tax levies, or to butcher local schools’ budgets. Which, given voters’ rage over property taxes, is likelier?”

Read Suddes’ column here.

The headline says it all: “Property-tax ‘reform’ just shifts school-funding to homeowners.”

You know who has to ask voters to pass those levies? Local school board members, superintendents, treasurers, and the community groups that put together levy campaigns.

So the enmity shifts from irresponsible lawmakers to those responsible for ensuring our local public schools are funded.

If you wonder why we are suing the state, challenging the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher scheme, look no further.

At the same time, lawmakers and Gov. DeWine are shortchanging local public schools, they are prepared to spend $1.7 billion in the next two years on a boondoggle for private, mostly religious schools, and a rebate and refund for mostly wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in private schools.

It bears repeating: the funding for EdChoice comes from the same line-item in the two-year state budget that pays for public schools, so a dollar more for private school vouchers is a dollar less available for public schools.

Suddes quotes Howard Fleeter in his column. Fleeter testified before lawmakers that in fiscal year 1999, shortly after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the state’s funding system unconstitutional, the state’s share of funding local public schools was 45.7 percent.

In the current fiscal year, which began July 1, the state’s share of funding public schools is expected to be 35 percent.

We believe this system that siphons away $1.7 billion from public schools for private schools is unconstitutional, and Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page agreed with us in June on three counts.

Join us.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio