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Good Tuesday morning,

Just this year, more than 50 school districts have joined our effort to challenge the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher scheme that is going to siphon away an additional $1.5 billion in the new two-year state budget from underfunded public schools.

We’ve seen this increase in our numbers, and we expect even more schools to join for a number of reasons.

First, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled on June 24 that EdChoice private school vouchers are unconstitutional on three counts. The state is appealing. We expected nothing less.

But we won the first round in a huge, historic way.

Second, state lawmakers doubled down on harming public schools in the two-year state budget, choosing instead to funnel billions of much needed tax dollars to private schools and wealthy families.

If Gov. Mike DeWine hadn’t used his veto power, this would have been the worst budget for public schools in decades.

Third, we are not alone. In state after state where the pro-voucher crowd has made the public-money tax grab, organizations like ours have formed to fight back.

And our side is winning because states decided these issues in the 19th century, and drew clear lines between the separation of church and state with clear intentions that public tax dollars are for public schools, not private religious schools.

In the states where there are legal challenges like ours, the courts are ruling against vouchers.

In the states where voters have had a chance to weigh in, vouchers lose and public schools win.

We are confident we are going to be victorious at the appellate level, and when our case hits the Ohio Supreme Court.

Here’s a question to ask yourself if you are a board member, superintendent or public school treasurer – is your district part of our historic lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not?

Here is how to join.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled last week that Ohio’s EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional.

This is a huge win for public school students, parents, educators and taxpayers.

Judge Page agreed with our lawsuit on three counts.

First, the Ohio Constitution states lawmakers shall create a single system of common schools for the common good open to all children in Ohio.

Vouchers are unconstitutional because they create a separate and unequal system of uncommon schools that are not open to all students, but instead are only available to primarily wealthy religious students.

Secondly, vouchers are unconstitutional because they are hurting public schools and public school children by taking tax dollars from public schools to provide refunds and rebate to wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in private, mostly religious schools.

Vouchers are unconstitutional because they divert more than $1 billion a year in state tax dollars from public schools, increasing the reliance on local property taxes. This is hurting our students, parents, educators, taxpayers and communities.

The $1 billion boondoggle in tax dollars for private school vouchers comes from the same line-item in the two-year state budget that pays for public schools so a dollar more for vouchers is a dollar less available for public schools.

Third, the Ohio Constitution 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.”

Vouchers are unconstitutional because more than 90 percent of the private schools receiving vouchers paid with tax dollars are religious. It’s right there in black and white in the Ohio Constitution.

The ruling forced the pro-voucher crowd out of the woodwork, but their spokespeople are desperate because, like the clothes-challenged emperor, they have no defense.

It’s impossible to defend a scheme sold as a way to give poor families a choice that in reality gives refunds and rebates to wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in private schools. Les Wexner is eligible for a voucher. Public school students are shortchanged.

It’s impossible to defend a scheme as choice when, as Judge Page notes in her ruling, the private school operators hold all the power.

Private schools take tax dollars with zero financial or academic accountability and then use race, religion, family income, disabilities as reasons to open or slam their doors shut against children.

The Ohio Attorney General, carrying water for the pro-voucher crowd, will appeal and we expect the pro-voucher front groups, bought and paid for by billionaires like Betsy DeVos and the Koch Family, will continue to intervene.

Vouchers are unconstitutional.

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

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

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Wealthy suburban schools have been joining Vouchers Hurt Ohio at a fast pace because they see and feel the immediate impact of losing millions of dollars to private school vouchers.

It is also becoming increasingly clear that vouchers hurt rural schools.

According to the National Rural Education Association (NREA), rural schools across the country serve more than 10 million students, and half of those students, nearly five million children, come from low-income homes.

Like Ohio, these rural schools are not able to raise large amounts of local tax dollars because their property values are often lower compared to other areas of the state.

Rural schools in Ohio and many states are more dependent on the state to ensure there is enough money for each child to receive a high quality education.

Ohio lawmakers have abandoned the Fair School Funding Plan that would have funded all schools, including rural schools, at a constitutional level.

At the same time, legislative leaders are siphoning away more than $1 billion in tax dollars for private school operators and an unregulated, unaccountable private school voucher program.

You can see why rural schools are taking one for the wealthy team of families and private school operators when it comes to vouchers.

In other states where vouchers have drained rural schools, the consequences have been devastating to rural communities.

In West Virginia and Arizona, according to the NREA, rural schools have been forced to close.

In Indiana, there have been increasing calls for consolidation of local schools and school districts.

Keep in mind, in many of these small towns and rural districts in Ohio, the local public school is their identity and means everything. Everything.

Vouchers don’t help poor families. Vouchers don’t help rural schools. Vouchers hurt low-income students, rural schools and all of Ohio.

This is a plague. The cure is our lawsuit. Vouchers are going on trial.

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

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

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Earlier this year, House Speaker Matt Huffman said a constitutional funding formula for Ohio’s public schools was a “fantasy,” and “unsustainable.”

The House, under Huffman’s leadership, scrapped the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan while earmarking hundreds of millions of public tax dollars to private school operators.

As the two-year state budget moved to the Ohio Senate, public school advocates remained hopeful that lawmakers might come to their senses, recognize their constitutional duty to fund public schools, and restore the Fair School Funding Plan.

Fat chance.

Instead, state Sen. Jerry Cirino, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told school supporters to get on board with their plan or “it could only get worse for you.”

These anti-public school lawmakers aren’t listening to reason. They want their way without static.

Cirino told cleveland.com he isn’t trying to chill free speech.

Right.

This is why we are suing the state, challenging the constitutionality of the harmful private school voucher program known as EdChoice.

If we could reason with lawmakers, we would.

But there is no reasoning with people like Jerry Cirino and Matt Huffman.

Here is the good news.

Vouchers are going on trial this year in Franklin County.

More good news.

More than 300 public schools have joined our lawsuit and more are joining every day.

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

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

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

We appreciate the growing support from good Ohioans like you for our lawsuit, our public schools, our students, teachers, taxpayers and communities.

Each Tuesday, we send this email to you to keep you up-to-date on our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the harmful EdChoice private school voucher scheme that is siphoning away $1 billion in tax dollars a year from our local public schools.

We also let you know about the new dangers to our communities being advanced by an extreme anti-public school majority in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate.

They are relentless.

Recently, anti-public school lawmakers have pushed to rip off the financial reserves paid for by local taxpayers to ensure local schools can put together five-year spending plans and avoid returning to voters with levies.

But that’s not all.

These same lawmakers want to make it more difficult for local schools to pass levies by raising the threshold from a simple majority of 50-plus one to 60 percent.

In 2023, many of these same lawmakers tried to amend the Ohio Constitution to raise the threshold for passing ballot initiatives to 60 percent and Ohio voters wholeheartedly and resoundingly rejected that nonsense.

It gets even worse in Columbus. These same lawmakers also want to prohibit public school committees from any contact with voters 30 days before an election in which a levy is on the ballot.

These are the same people who justify dark money in politics by claiming corporations should be allowed to secretly fund campaigns because their actions are protected by the free speech ideals in the First Amendment.

Hypocrites. Yes.

There is so much going on that you should be aware of that we can’t possibly put it all in a weekly email, but we do regularly post on these issues as they arise on our social media platforms.

Do you follow us on Facebook? Check here.

How about X or Twitter? Check here.

Or Instagram? Check here.

They don’t want you to be informed. Stay with us. We are going to keep putting a white hot spotlight on them.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio