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Good Tuesday morning,

If you are a long-time reader, thank you.

If you are new to our list, welcome!

Each Tuesday morning, we send out an email talking about our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher scheme that will cost taxpayers $1.7 billion in the next two years.

Here’s the good news: We’ve already won our case in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Jaiza Page ruled EdChoice is unconstitutional on three counts. It is now being appealed by the state and out-of-state pro voucher interests to the 10th District Court of Appeals.

Here’s more good news: you will get information like the above each week and you will never be asked to donate to our cause like so many other emails that fill your inbox.

We raise money for our lawsuit by asking districts joining our coalition to pay $2 per student per year. For most of the public schools in the state, that is less than one high school voucher.

The state gives private schools $8,407 for high school students and $6,165 for K-12 students.

We also try to keep you apprised of what is happening with the effort by pro-voucher billionaires to expand these programs in other states and the pushback by grass roots coalitions like Vouchers Hurt Ohio.

In some states, public school groups have gone to their governor or their legislatures to fight vouchers, but in Ohio we do not have that option.

Our governor and state lawmakers are intent on Ohio becoming the Wild West of private school vouchers.

There are no income caps, meaning billionaires and millionaires are eligible for vouchers.

The vast majority of families taking vouchers are wealthy and already had their children enrolled in a private school so this is a refund and a rebate program.

More than 90 percent of the private schools taking vouchers are religious in nature.

It’s only going to get worse if we don’t fight.

Local public schools are already being forced to go back to their local taxpayers with levy requests to fill the holes in their budgets from the state shortchanging funding for public schools.

And there is a movement to expand the use of tax dollars for new construction and building repairs for private schools, at the same time many public schools wait in line for assistance from the state to upgrade their facilities.

If this upsets you, and it should, you can get involved.

Check to see if your school district is part of our lawsuit here.

If not, contact your local school board members, superintendent and treasurer and ask them to stand up for your public schools and protect local taxpayers by joining our coalition.

Learn how to join our coalition here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

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

Good Tuesday morning

Mike Curtin’s credentials are impeccable.

He is the former editor and associate publisher for the Columbus Dispatch, a two-term state lawmaker who served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.

Curtin recently wrote a deep-dive article looking at the history of funding public schools with taxpayers in Ohio and the decision by voters 175 years ago to stop tax dollars from going to private, religious schools.

You can read Curtin’s excellent article here: Why Ohioans said private schools shouldn’t be funded with our money 174 years ago | Opinion

Curtin points out what voters were thinking on June 17, 1851 when they voted to adopt an Ohio Constitution that explicitly states no tax dollars shall go to private, religious schools.

Why does this matter with our lawsuit?

Curtin writes: “these questions are paramount because the (Ohio Supreme) court’s majority (6-1) Republicans all profess fidelity to originalist judicial philosophy – to apply the law as written and understood at the time of its adoption.”

Curtin quotes current Ohio Supreme Court justices on the idea of originality.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy vows: “As justices, we are required to faithfully, fairly and impartially uphold the law as written. We do not rewrite it or legislate from the bench.”

Curtin quotes Justice R. Patrick DeWine (he’s Gov. Mike DeWine’s son) from a December article for the Ohio State Law Journal pledging adherence to “an original public meaning approach to the Ohio Constitution.”

Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page, who ruled in June that the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts, quoted “the plain words of delegates to Ohio’s Constitutional Convention of 1850-51, who adopted language to ensure school funds of the state would be used solely to support common (public) schools.”

Curtin points out: “On Dec. 5, 1850, delegate Samson Mason, a Clark County lawyer, explained the common-school language was intended to ensure “the whole religious community in fact shall be forever excluded from any participation in the school fund of the state, and that because they are religious.”

Delegate Samuel Nash, a Gallia County lawyer, Curtin notes, followed: “Every citizen has, and will have a right to participate in the means of education; but the intention of the provision merely is, that no organized body of Christians, as such, shall be entitled to lay its hands upon the school funds of the state and appropriate it to the furtherance of their own particular views…It means merely that neither Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, or the Catholic church shall have the power to seize upon the public funds and appropriate them to suit itself.”

Now wouldn’t these ideas be reassuring to originalists like former U.S. Supreme Justice Antonin Scalia?

Please read Curtin’s complete article.

And ask yourself, is your school district part of our historic lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

As we travel the state, we are asked questions about our lawsuit. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions.

What is Vouchers Hurt Ohio?

Vouchers Hurt Ohio is a growing coalition of more than 300 public school districts that have come together to sue the state over the unconstitutional and harmful private school voucher program.

How do the EdChoice private school vouchers hurt Ohio?

The EdChoice private school voucher program hurts our schools and our kids by funneling $1.7 billion in tax dollars in the next two years away from our public schools into private schools. Anti-public school lawmakers have implemented a universal voucher program making all parents, including millionaires and billionaires, eligible for at least a partial voucher.

Parents, the vast majority whose children were already enrolled in private schools, are receiving tax dollars as a refund or a rebate to pay for a private education. The private school voucher program has exploded with more than 91,000 vouchers.

Are private school operators receiving tax dollars for the construction of private, religious schools?

Lawmakers spent at least an unprecedented $4 million in tax dollars for construction grants for private schools.

What is the amount of money for a private school voucher per student?

When it started as an experiment, the private school voucher program was $1,229 per voucher. Now, high school vouchers are $8,407 and K-8 vouchers are worth $6,165. The vast majority of public schools receive far less money per pupil for K-8 and high school students from the state.

Why do you think Vouchers Hurt Ohio can be successful?

Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts. Her ruling was appealed to the 10th District Court of Appeals.

What are the three counts of unconstitutionality?

1. Edchoice vouchers use our tax dollars to create a separate and unequal system of private schools not open to all children. The Ohio Constitution clearly states lawmakers are responsible for funding a single system of common schools open to all children.
2. Edchoice vouchers siphon $1.7 billion in our tax dollars away from public schools while public schools are underfunded with an unconstitutional funding formula.
3. The Ohio Constitution clearly states “no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this State.” More than 90 percent of the EdChoice voucher schools are religious.

What impact do private school vouchers have on my property taxes?

The funding for private school vouchers comes out of the same line-item in the state budget that pays for public schools. A dollar more for private schools is a dollar less available for public schools. Local school districts, losing tax dollars to private schools, are being forced to go back to local taxpayers more and more often with levy requests. There is tremendous pressure on property owners to fill the hole in local public school district budgets created by state tax dollars lost to private school vouchers.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

You are probably reading stories about how public school districts fared around the state on the so-called Ohio School Report Cards.

Rich Exner, a reporter with Cleveland.com produced a revealing story that shows clearly report card results are directly tied to family income.

Here is Exner’s excellent lead: “The richest school districts did the best again in 2025 report cards released Monday by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.”

Read the story here.

Forty-seven of the state’s 607 school districts received overall ratings of five stars – the highest possible rating. The average median income in those districts was $64,073, Exner writes.

Averaging the median income for districts in each star rating, here is how it came out:

• 5 stars – $64,073
• 4.5 stars – $47.245
• 4 stars – $44,003
• 3.5 stars – $40,699
• 3 stars – $38,185
• 2.5 stars – $35,027
• 2 stars – $33,2821

Could it be any clearer?

So what are we measuring with report cards that taint the reputation of some schools, teachers, administrators, principles, students and families?

Cleveland.com also wrote, in another story by Laura Hancock, that Cleveland public schools had “tumbled” on the 2024-2025 state report card from 3 stars to 2.5 stars.

In Columbus, the Dispatch wrote that Columbus public schools earned 2 stars and in Cincinnati, the Enquirer reported Cincinnati public schools received 2.5 stars for the second year in a row.

Are EdChoice private school vouchers hurting our state’s largest public schools and others in Ohio?

Let’s look quickly at some other information.

As you know, state lawmakers are giving a record $1.7 billion to private schools in the next two years while shortchanging public schools with an unconstitutional funding system.

How does this affect Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati?

If lawmakers had fully funded their own Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan for a constitutional funding formula, here are the additional state funding amounts these three districts would have received:

Cleveland – shortchanged $157,283,811

Columbus – shortchanged $48,387,628

Cincinnati – shortchanged $50,282,002

You can’t take $1.7 billion in tax dollars, give it to private school operators for primarily wealthy families to receive a refund and rebate on the tuition they were already paying to enroll their children in private schools without having a severe impact on funding public schools.

That’s a math lesson our anti-public school lawmakers need to master, but they are only interested in destroying public schools.

So for those lawmakers who support the unaccountable, unbridled expansion of EdChoice vouchers, we have a report card for you: F.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio