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Good Tuesday morning,

Berea City Schools near Cleveland in Cuyahoga County is the latest district to join our Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the harmful private school voucher program that is siphoning nearly $1 billion away from public schools each year.

The reason the board members voted to join is shocking and enlightening.

Take a look at this chart “Voucher Usage in the Berea Schools.”

As it notes, the chart created by Berea Board of Education Cori Farris, shows the skyrocketing use of vouchers by non-low-income families in the district.

In the 2022-23 school year, 1 of every 3 families using a voucher in Berea were wealthy.

The next school year, the first year of universal vouchers in Ohio, the percentage and number of wealthy families in Berea using a voucher skyrocketed to 78 percent.

This year, it went up again so that 88 percent, almost 9 of every 10 families taking a voucher in Berea, are not low-income.

In two school years, the number of wealthy families taking vouchers in Berea jumped from 51 to 602.

Berea School Board President Farris, who created the graphic, told cleveland.com this is an “abuse” of the program.

“It’s not the spirit in which the expanded vouchers were meant,” Farris said. “They were meant to offer alternatives to lower performing districts and for lower income families.”

Berea Superintendent Tracy Wheeler told cleveland.com she is not against school choice.

“But if there is going to be school choice, at a minimum put the same accountability on private and parochial schools,” Wheeler said.

The state audits the financial records of each public school, including Berea, each year, cleveland.com notes.

There is zero financial or academic accountability for the private school voucher program. Legislation introduced to increase oversight has been killed by pro-voucher lawmakers in the Ohio General Assembly.

Is your district part of the lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Find out how to join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

Yes, that’s right.

Tim Walz, the governor of Wisconsin, Vice-Presidential candidate in 2024 and rumored to be making a run for the U.S. Senate in 2026, will be the keynote speaker in Columbus at the Network for Public Education (NPE) National Conference in April.

First, it’s great that Ohio and Columbus will host the NPE conference this year.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio will hold two panel discussions regarding our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the harmful private school voucher program known as EdChoice.

There will be public school experts and advocates from all across the country.

It is a two-day conference that will be held on April 5 and 6 at the Hyatt Regency.

Find out more about The Network for Public Education here.

And register here.

In addition to Gov. Walz, the speakers include:

Diane Ravitch, NPE President

Kurt Russell, the 2022 National Teacher of the Year

Jess Piper, Rural Communities and Public School Advocate

Gina Hinojosa, Texas State Representative

John H. Jackson, President and CEO, Schott Foundation.

There will be a pre-conference on Friday, April 4 featuring a conversation between Diane Ravitch, NPE President, and Josh Cowen. Cowen is a professor at Michigan State University and the author of “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.”

We hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Former state Rep. John Patterson, who helped develop a constitutional funding formula for public schools, known as the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan, will be a featured speaker on a virtual panel discussion on Wednesday, February 12 at 7 p.m. hosted by the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

Here is a link to sign up for the panel entitled “Fair Funding Vs. Vouchers: Understanding the K-12 Funding Tug of War.”

Susan Kaeser, LWVO Issue Specialist and longtime Advocate for Quality Public Education, will moderate the discussion.

Patterson will be joined on the panel by Nneka Slade Jackson, president of the Richmond Heights Board of Education, and Dennis Willard, communications director for Vouchers Hurt Ohio.

Patterson will talk about the roots of the Cupp-Patterson plan, recent success and the importance of the final step: full funding.

The plan has been in the news because Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman has said the constitutional funding formula is not “sustainable,” and is a “fantasy.”

At the same time, Huffman is the main driving force behind passing a universal private school voucher program in Ohio that is costing taxpayers and public schools $1 billion a year.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio is suing the state, challenging the constitutionality of the private school voucher program known as EdChoice.

Willard will talk about the lawsuit on the panel, and Slade Jackson will discuss how private school vouchers are resegregating public schools.

There is still time to sign up for the virtual panel discussion here.

Good Tuesday morning,

Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled his two-year state budget yesterday that included some tax increases and a desire to fully fund public schools.

This, of course, put him immediately at odds with the Voucher-in-Chief, House Speaker Matt Huffman, who has said funding public schools is “unsustainable,” and a “fantasy.”

So who will define Ohio’s reality in the next six months because the budget is due to be signed into law no later than June 30?

There’s a whole lot of ping pong being played in Columbus and public schools are caught in the middle.

Meanwhile, the uncapped private school $1 billion boondoggle goes unchecked.

No oversight.

No financial accountability.

No fiscal responsibility.

Something will have to give by June 30 and if the past predicts the future it will be public schools.

This is why we cannot rely on the legislature or the governor to seriously address the unconstitutional private school voucher scheme.

This is why we must go to court.

We will this year as vouchers go on trial in Franklin County, just down the street from where the governor and lawmakers work.

This is not a false alarm.

Vouchers challenge the very existence of public schools.

We have five counts already given merit by Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page and we need only one to find the system unconstitutional.

Our first count is very strong.

The Ohio Constitution is clear.

Lawmakers and the governor shall create a single system of common schools for the common good.

Vouchers are a separate and unequal system of schools, benefiting the wealthy and enriching private school operators.

Join us. Is your district part of our lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Learn more about joining here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

House Speaker Matt Huffman is feeling the pressure of his anti-public school remarks made earlier this month.

First Huffman said a plan to fully fund public schools at a constitutional level, known as Cupp-Patterson, was “unsustainable,” and then he went even further and said it was a “fantasy.”

Huffman’s fellow lawmakers in the Republican caucus, and remember they elected him Speaker, were not happy because many are from rural areas where public schools are the core of their communities.

The private school voucher scheme that Huffman has championed is draining $1 billion a year away from public schools while enriching private school operators, primarily religious schools, and giving a refund and rebate on tuition to a lot of very wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in private schools.

Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the connection because the money for vouchers comes from the same line-item in the budget that pays for public schools. A dollar more for vouchers is literally a dollar less available for public schools.

Morgan Trau, a reporter for the Columbus Statehouse bureau whose work appears in numerous media outlets across the state, reported that Huffman and his Republican legislative colleagues went on a private three-day retreat in January where policy was discussed.

Trau reported.

“I’ve confirmed with half a dozen representatives that the speaker’s team gave a presentation about how the current funding formula needs to be cut due to it being “unsustainable.” After the supporters spoke, numerous Republicans stood up to advocate for fully funding public schools, starting a larger discussion.

Some of the lawmakers have been focused on public schools for years. Others haven’t always been the most vocal supporters but still wanted to speak up, while others are education leaders in the state.”

It’s nice to see Huffman feeling the pressure and lawmakers doing the right thing and standing up for public schools, but here’s the sad reality:

When rural Republicans challenged their leadership in states like Tennessee and Texas on the same issue – funding for public schools v. vouchers – those lawmakers suddenly faced primary opponents funded by the Americans For Prosperity.

The rapid expansion of private school vouchers won’t be scaled back in the two-year budget that must be passed by June 30.

Our only recourse is to sue the state, challenging the very constitutionality of the harmful private school voucher scheme, and vouchers go on trial in Franklin County this year.

Is your school district part of the lawsuit? Check here.

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