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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

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