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At a press conference on Monday announcing the state will appeal a recent ruling that Ohio’s EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional on three counts, House Speaker Matt Huffman said lawmakers are compelled by the Ohio Constitution to fund private, religious schools.

Compelled!

Our attorneys proved within a matter of minutes that Huffman was wrong. In fact, the passage Huffman misquoted from the Ohio Constitution had already been clarified by the Ohio Supreme Court in two cases: one in 1872 and the other in 1945.

Here is what Bill Phillis, the Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding’s Executive Director, had to say about Matt Huffman’s error.

“To put it politely, Mr. Huffman was mistaken in stating that the Ohio Constitution “compels” the legislature to fund religious schools and education. He shortchanged the public in his statement today by not citing the first part of the passage he referenced.”

“Mr. Huffman failed to read the part in this same section that states…”No person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or maintain any form of worship, against his consent; and no preference shall be given, by law, to any religious society.”

Dan Heintz, a Vouchers Hurt Ohio steering committee member, Cleveland Heights-University Heights school board member and teacher at Chardon City Schools, said:

“Mr. Huffman is wrong and if he was a student in my high school history class, I would be compelled to give him an “F” for a partial and misleading answer. If lawmakers were compelled to fund religious schools for the past 150 years, why did it take them more than 110 years to get started?”

Huffman appeared at a press conference with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Yitz Frank, School Choice Ohio, Aaron Baer, Center for Christian Virtue, state Rep. Jamie Callender, and Tom Fischer with Indiana’s EdChoice Legal Advocates. Fischer was there because an attorney for the Institute for Justice couldn’t make it. Yikes!

The stated reason was to announce the state would file an appeal. Yost gave zero details on the appeal.

The real reason they held the press conference? They are sweating bullets that all these stories that the EdChoice voucher scheme has been ruled unconstitutional may lead to parents not seeking vouchers.

They looked nervous, scared and once again they have not come up with one legal argument to justify spending $1.5 billion in tax dollars for private, primarily religious schools.

History and the Ohio Constitution is on our side.

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

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

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

“There is no Santa Claus, there is no Easter Bunny, and there is no such thing as school choice.”

This is a quote from Dan Heintz, a Cleveland Heights-University Heights School Board member and teacher at Chardon Local Schools.

“The Ohio Constitution is real; school choice is a fairy tale,” he told reporters at a press conference Vouchers Hurt Ohio held last week.

Since its inception, the pro-voucher crowd has sold the siphoning away of billions of tax dollars from public schools as a choice for parents and students.

Once upon a time, vouchers were cynically sold as a “choice” for poor parents, but the pro-voucher crowd has dropped all pretense of helping poor families.

Now, in its new, improved packaging, vouchers are advertised as the choice for all families when in fact the vast majority of vouchers are going to wealthy families whose children are already enrolled in private schools.

In her ruling that the EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page addresses the false issue of “choice.”

In our Count 1, where our attorneys successfully argued that private school vouchers create a separate and unequal system of uncommon schools open only to the privileged, Judge Page writes:

“The chartered non-public school, not the student or parent, applies to the state for an EdChoice voucher. By bestowing participating private religious schools with complete control over prospective students’ participation, the “school choice” here is made by the private school, not “as a result of independent decisions of parents and students.”

The private school operators choose, and they can discriminate using race, religion, family income (oh so important), academic or athletic ability, and disabilities to accept or reject any student without explanation or accountability.

“Chartered non-public schools participating in the EdChoice program are not subject to anti-discrimination laws, giving them complete control over whether to enroll a prospective student, and allowing them to turn students away based on their religion, sexual orientation or disability,” Judge Page writes in her 47-page opinion.

These are our tax dollars taken directly from the pool of money that is supposed to pay for our common system of common public schools open to all children.

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,

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