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Good Tuesday morning,

A recent Associated Press story written by Julie Carr Smyth that was picked up by media outlets across Ohio and the country put a white hot spotlight on the issues surrounding public schools being forced to bus private school students even if it means their own students don’t have a ride to and from school.

“Public school districts canceled bus transportation for thousands of high schoolers again this year while in some cases still busing students to private and charter schools to avoid steep fines under state requirements,” Carr Smyth wrote in her AP story.

Making matters worse? There is a bus driver shortage in Ohio in large part because anti-public school lawmakers pile on the regulations and withhold state support dollars to local public schools.

Public schools, according to Carr Smyth, are required to transport K-8 students to private voucher schools even on district holidays or when buses break down.

Dayton City Schools Superintendent David Lawrence is quoted in Carr Smyth’s story.

He refers to the transportation issues as “madness.”

Lawrence told Carr Smyth “the Republican-led Legislature diverted roughly $2.5 billion in state education funding to the voucher program over the next two years — and still is requiring public districts to foot transportation costs for those students.”

Dayton runs 54 bus routes for Dayton students, and 74 bus routes for non-public students.

That is madness.

No one, including the state, can say how much money public schools are paying across Ohio to transport students to private schools.

The legislature did put together a study group to look into one transportation issue and one alone: how public schools can get non-public school students bused on days when the public districts are closed.

The study group is scheduled to have a report back in June, 2026.

Is your district part of our historic lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher scheme? Check here.

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Wednesday morning,

The anti-public school crowd have been crowing about a recent judge’s decision in Missouri regarding a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of private school vouchers in the Show Me State.

It was a pyrrhic victory.

Let’s set the record straight.

The Missouri lower court did not rule vouchers were constitutional.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Briam Stumpe merely ruled that the state can continue to fund vouchers while the lawsuit works its way through the judicial system.

Judge Jaiza Page, in Ohio, made the same decision when she ruled the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts on June 24.

Page knew her decision would be appealed. It was. So she proactively said the voucher program should continue to be funded while the case is decided at the appellate and, eventually, the Ohio Supreme Court level.

So if you hear any pro-voucher types touting Missouri as a win, it isn’t.

To date, no court has ruled vouchers constitutional in any state because most state constitutions are clear on this matter.

Plenty of states, including conservative states like Utah and Wyoming, have ruled vouchers unconstitutional.

Oh and just for the record. Guess how much money Missouri is spending on vouchers?

$51 million.

In Ohio, we are going to spend $1.5 billion over the next two years.

It’s only going to get worse because the anti-public school lawmakers pushing vouchers are trying to find more and more ways to divert tax dollars into private, unaccountable hands.

We expect to see more dollars for private school renovation and constitution when the state passes a Capital Improvements Budget in early 2026.

We can stop this madness, but we need your help,

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

If not, why not. Learn how to join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

In the past weeks, all across the state, students returned to classrooms that are woefully underfunded because anti-public school, pro-voucher lawmakers have shifted $1.5 billion to private schools.

To add pain to injury, public schools are spending hundreds of millions of dollars transporting private school students at the expense of taking care of their own students.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, state lawmakers and education funding experts came together to develop a constitutional funding formula for public schools.

It was called the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan, and lawmakers agreed to phase it in over six years.

This year, however, the House Speaker, the state’s main cheerleader for harmful private school vouchers, said Cupp Patterson was “unsustainable,” and a “fantasy.”

So they tossed the Fair School Funding Plan on the scrapheap of history, and doubled down on providing even more tax dollars to private schools.

This irresponsible behavior was not lost on Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page, who ruled on June 24 that the EdChoice private school voucher scheme is unconstitutional on three counts.

Judge Page wrote, under Count Two, Vouchers Hurt Ohio alleges the state’s “failure to adequately fund public schooling by not fully funding the Fair School Funding Plan while simultaneously spending large sums on the EdChoice program has resulted in a system of common schools that is not thorough and efficient.”

The Ohio Constitution is very clear on this issue. Lawmakers shall create a single system of common schools for the common good and they are required to fund that system.

Judge Page later wrote…Schools “cannot keep necessary positions filled (teachers and other critical staff), repair or replace critical building infrastructure, provide students with updated and quality learning materials, provide students with adequate and reliable transportation nor can they construct additional necessary facilities.”

The state and pro-voucher intervenors appealed Judge Page’s decision, but they haven’t addressed the huge constitutional questions she raised.

As students return to school, we continue to work to stop this existential threat to public education.

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

If not, why not? Learn how to join here. Sincerely, Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

We hope you enjoy our weekly email where we try to keep you up-to-date on our historic lawsuit.

Did you know you can read any weekly emails you may have missed on our website by clicking here?

And if you want your colleagues, friends, family members or others who support public education open to all children to sign up for our weekly emails, you can share this link with them.

We post regularly on our social media platforms about our lawsuit in Ohio, but we also provide a lot of information about how other states are dealing with the push for universal vouchers at the expense of public schools.

You can follow us on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

Our website is full of information as well.

You can learn about our coalition, find a list of frequently asked questions about our lawsuit with answers, learn how Vouchers Hurt Ohio, and read about our mission.

You can also see the llist of the school districts that have joined our lawsuit here.

Armed with all this information, would you like to be more involved?

First, check to see if your local public schools are part of our lawsuit here.

If not, you can download and print out this .pdf, sign and send a copy to each of your local school board members, your local superintendent and treasurer.

If your district is part of our lawsuit, then thank them for supporting you and the children, families and taxpayers in your community with a quick hand-written note.

Your local education leaders need to hear from you either way: to thank them or to urge them to stand up for the future of public schools.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

In state after state, where anti-public school zealots, backed by billionaires, have pushed to expand private school vouchers, grass roots coalitions like Vouchers Hurt Ohio have formed to fight back.

Wyoming is the latest state where vouchers have been ruled unconstitutional.

A Laramie County District Court Judge stopped the new Wyoming private school voucher scheme that planned to spend $30 million to provide $7,000 for each student to attend a private school or home school.

Like Ohio, Wyoming’s voucher program has no income limits for the recipients so millionaires are eligible for a voucher.

Wyoming’s program is a pittance compared to Ohio where our lawmakers have approved spending $1.5 billion in the next two school years on vouchers with zero financial or academic oversight.

The cases in Ohio and Wyoming are similar.

In Ohio, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled on June 24 the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts, including that the state is not funding our public schools at a constitutional level while siphoning away billions of dollars to private schools.

Also in Wyoming, the judge noted the voucher program allows public funding of private schools that have discriminatory admission policies.

In Ohio, Judge Page made the same legal point in her ruling and said school choice is “semantics,” because all the power is in the hands of the private school operators.

Private school operators use discriminatory admission policies to determine who gets in and who is left out, including race, religion, family income (millionaires please apply), disabilities and any other reason they may want to use to slam their doors shut.

Wyoming is the latest in a series of states ruling vouchers unconstitutional.

This is an historic time for public schools as we face a truly existential threat from the rise of private school vouchers.

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

If not, why not. Learn how to join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio