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Good Tuesday morning

We are seeing a surge in districts joining our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the EdChoice private school voucher scheme.

Here’s a sampling:

Liberty Local School District in Trumbull County just north of Youngstown is the latest district to sign on.

Independence Local Schools in Cuyahoga County and Groveport Madison Schools in Franklin County also joined.

And count the Berea City School District that serves Berea, Brook Park, Middleburg Heights and parts of Olmsted Falls in Cuyahoga County among our growing list.

This trend will continue because more and more ordinary Ohioans are catching on to the $1 billion taxpayer ripoff known as EdChoice vouchers and they are getting angry and active.

In district after district, local citizens are starting to reach out to their local school board members, their superintendents and their treasurers to tell them how vouchers are hurting their prized public schools and their communities.

In Liberty, a former teacher began talking to her board members and helped them understand why vouchers were harming their students and what they could do to fight back.

Read about it here and here.

We are seeing this pattern repeat itself in district after district.

One person can make a difference. A small group of people can make a huge impact.

If you are interested in helping to organize a grassroots effort in your school district to fight back against EdChoice, then please send an email to ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net, and we can help you connect with other Ohioans.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

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