Can You Guess The Top Issue for 6500 School Officials Who Gathered in Columbus for OSBA?

December 9, 2025

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