Uncategorized

It is sad to see what is happening in Ohio and across our country regarding the growing problem with states using public tax dollars to openly fund private, most often, religious education.

In state after state where programs like Ohio’s universal private school voucher program known as EdChoice has been pushed upon the public, there have been scandals, outrage and backlash.

In Florida and Texas, state lawmakers have pushed for giving public tax dollars to religious schools, as long as they approve of the religion.

Now they are facing backlash for excluding Islamic schools from applying for vouchers.

Texas, Florida face pushback over efforts to exclude Islamic schools from school voucher programs

Our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the harmful $1.7 billion private school maintains no private, religious school should receive tax dollars because public dollars are for public schools, period.

In Arizona, reporters found voucher money was used to buy diamond rings and necklaces, appliances, lingerie, IPhones, smart TVs, and gift cards.

I-TEAM: ESA parents bought diamond rings, lingerie, and Kenmore appliances with education tax dollars

We don’t know how the $1.7 billion going to private schools is being spent because there is zero financial or academic accountability for EdChoice. Zero.

At the same time, Arizona’s public schools are suffering and a judge ruled in August the funding system was unconstitutional. The ruling included photos of damaged roofs, cracked floors, and peeling walls, and cited teachers using their own money for school supplies while vouchers spending rose to more than $1 billion.

Our lawsuit makes the same point. Ohio lawmakers and Gov. DeWine are shortchanging the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan devised to address Ohio’s unconstitutional public school formula while giving voucher schools $1.7 billion, mostly for wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in private schools.

In Ohio, the top issue at the gathering of the Ohio School Boards Association last November was vouchers.

Denis Smith, a retired school administrator who served as a consultant in the Ohio Department of Education’s charter school office, wrote following the OSBA meeting:

“The top issue facing Ohio schools isn’t a shortage of bus drivers, scarce substitute teachers, or funding for aging school buses. It’s the expanded universal private school voucher program that is devastating the long-range viability of public education and diverting more than $1 billion annually from the state treasury to support private and religious schools.”

Ohio School Boards Association conference reveals growing reaction against vouchers and lawmakers

The good news is public schools and their supporters are fighting back in each of these states, and winning in court cases like we have so far with a ruling in June, 2025 by Franklin Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page that EdChoice Vouchers are unconstitutional on three counts.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Good Tuesday morning,

You are already receiving our weekly email, but do you know others who want to stay up to date with all the Vouchers Hurt Ohio news?

Please share this link with them.

Our social media presence is strong and growing, and we post regularly about the lawsuit, the issues surrounding vouchers, and even what is happening in other states.

We are not suing Ohio in a vacuum. In state after state where anti-public school groups have pushed to expand vouchers, grassroots organizations like Vouchers Hurt Ohio have sprung up in opposition.

Our Facebook page now has more than 3,000 followers, and is growing every day. We post shareable images, links to news stories in Ohio and elsewhere, and information about how vouchers are hurting our students, educators, parents, taxpayers, and others.

Follow us here.

We are seeing tremendous growth on our X (formerly Twitter) page. Follow us here.

And we post regularly on Instagram as well. Check our Instagram page out here.

You can find quick links to all these pages and more information at our website: vouchershurtohio.com.

As you know, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled in our favor on three counts and found the EdChoice private school funding scheme unconstitutional in June, 2025.

This year, our case will be heard before the 10th District Court of Appeals, where we believe once again EdChoice will be found unconstitutional.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

The pro-voucher crowd continues to struggle to recover from the backlash following state Rep. Jamie Callender’s “Public School Bully Bill.”

A few weeks ago, Callender introduced legislation to punish the more than 330 public schools that are suing the state (and winning) over the $1.7 billion private school voucher program known as EdChoice.

Callender, who was cocky at first, quickly went into hiding when his scheme backfired in a major way.

No wonder. He got zero good press. In fact, the media rightly put a white-hot spotlight on his inane idea and rightly called him out for attempting to bully school districts.

No media outlet was more direct than the Cleveland Plain Dealer | cleveland.com, whose reporter Laura Hancock first broke the story.

“You can’t be a little bit unconstitutional:” Ohio lawmaker’s attack on schools is backfiring” read the Cleveland Plain Dealer headline. Listen to the podcast here.

Chris Quinn, the newspaper’s editor, said in a podcast: “Just like you can’t be a little bit pregnant, you can’t be a little bit unconstitutional. If it’s unconstitutional to penalize people for taking advantage of their First Amendment rights, it doesn’t matter what the penalty is. It’s illegal. This is flat out illegal. It’s wrong.”

Laura Johnston, with the Plain Dealer, said the message from schools is clear: ” ‘We’ve tried telling you this in the legislative branch, we’ve tried appealing to the executive branch, and all we’ve got left is the judicial branch.’ That is the check of government. That is how government powers work.”

She also chastised Callender for ducking reporters after the backlash.

“That’s really cowardly,” Johnston said about Callender.

We also stood up to Callender and his “Public School Bully Bill.”

Vouchers Hurt Ohio held a press conference to point out the unconstitutionality of Callender’s ideas, and how we would immediately go to court and seek an injunction should the legislature be brazen enough to pass it. Watch the press conference here.

You beat bullies by standing up to them. You don’t let them bully you.

We stood up to the bully.

We’re going to continue to stand up to the bully.

Are you with us? Has your school district joined our lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Isn’t it time you stood with the 330 other public school districts on behalf of your students, families, taxpayers, and communities and said enough is enough!

Join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

A few years ago, The Center for Christian Virtue invested about $5 million in purchasing a building in Columbus with a bird’s-eye view of the Statehouse.

Bill Phillis wrote a guest column about the organization’s growth in the Columbus Dispatch that you can read here.

Philis looked at their 990 report and found the CCV raised more than $4 million last year as they lobby for, among other things, private school vouchers.

He was writing in response to an article the Dispatch had published regarding the CCV and its president, Aaron Baer.

Phillis, who is addressing the serious issue of separation of church and state, notes Baer told the Dispatch: “The church should influence the government, but the government should absolutely stay out of the business of the church.”

Phillis writes in his column: “Baer is saying give us tax funds and government influence and protection with no strings attached. Further, (Baer) is saying, what we do with the tax money is not the business of the general public.”

Under their umbrella, the CCV has established the Ohio Christian Education Network that boasts on its website that it represents more than 170 Evangelical and Catholic schools in Ohio.

The Christian Education Network charges its participating schools $5 per pupil per year.

You don’t notice State Rep. Jamie Callender asking any questions regarding where that money comes from, but you can bet a large number of the 170 schools in the Christian Education Network are taking in voucher money from the state, i.e. public tax dollars.

So are tax dollars supplementing the Center for Chrisitan Virtue’s purchase of a $5 million building?

Are public tax dollars paying for the organization to lobby?

Are public tax dollars lifting up the Ohio Christian Education Network?

Here is what the Ohio Christian Network lists as its “commitment to members.”

• Advancing the core principles at the Ohio Statehouse
• Serve as a liaison for questions regarding legislation or issues with the Ohio Department of Education
• Ohio-specific legislative updates reflecting the most pressing issues affecting Christian schools
• Annual Statehouse Advocacy Day
• Annual Report of Christian Education in Ohio
• Concierge-level service at the Ohio Statehouse including scheduling meetings with your legislators and Statehouse tours
• Onsite and/or regional legislative advocacy training

In asking more schools to join, their website states “join a movement committed to ensuring every Ohio student has access to a biblically-based education.”

This is at the essence of our lawsuit. The Ohio Constitution is clear, and the constitutional framers were clear, that tax dollars should not pay for private, religious schools.

Yet, more than 90 percent of the private schools taking the vast majority of the $1.7 billion in voucher money in the next two years will be religious.

Is there a double standard here?

Of course, there is and this is yet another reason why we are suing the state and challenging the constitutionality of the harmful EdChoice private school voucher program.

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

Good Tuesday morning,

State Rep. Jamie Callender has backtracked on his “Public School Bully Bill” because we stood up to the bully.

Callender knows the lawmakers supporting the $1.7 billion EdChoice private school voucher scheme do not have a constitutional leg to stand on.

So Callender resorted to threats, intimidation, and bullying. He introduced legislation to withhold state funding from school districts in our Vouchers Hurt Ohio coalition that were suing the state.

It was an empty threat.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio held a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 12.

Our lead attorney, Mark Wallach, explained that Callender’s threat was unconstitutional and that we would go into court immediately with an injunction and win should the lawmakers be stupid enough to pass it.

Joining Wallach, former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Eric Brown, who chairs the Vouchers Hurt Ohio steering committee, called Callender’s idea “outrageous,” and said he “is trying to bully and intimidate our local school districts and it won’t work.”

The news from the press conference spread fast across the state and added to the mounting criticism and pressure that Callender was feeling from educators, parents, community members and even his fellow lawmakers.

Callender has zero co-sponsors on his bully bill. Zero.

The day after the press conference, Morgan Trau, a reporter with NEWS 5 in Cleveland, reported…”after mass backlash, (Callender) has reversed course.

Watch it here.

The disgraced Callender tried to save face. He told Trau he would amend his plan to not withhold all state funding to the districts, but only the amount the school was spending on the lawsuit.

Let’s do some math before we take Callender’s clown act apart.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio asks school districts to spend $2 per pupil per year. We have more than 330 school districts in our coalition. Most spend far less in a year on the lawsuit than a single voucher for a high school student, which is $8,400.

The 330 school districts in Vouchers Hurt Ohio have spent $1.7 million on the lawsuit in six years. Six years. Callender voted to spend $1.7 billion on vouchers in the next two years with zero financial or academic accountability. In two years.

Callender spreads a bunch of, and we’re being generous here, mistruths in his interview with Trau.

On Monday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Frances McGowan tried to interview Callender about his backtrack.

He went into hiding. Read about it here.

“When contacted, Callender referred cleveland.com | The Plain Dealer to his staff, which did not return requests for comment.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio issued a press release the same day because Callender’s idea is still unconstitutional. He can’t punish school districts for exercising their constitutional right to challenge policies that harm public school children.

Plain and simple.

Judge Brown said:

“The bill will still penalize school districts and continues to be unconstitutional. Whether it is a dime or $1 million, it’s unconstitutional. The legislature should be listening to (Franklin County) Judge (Jaiza) Page, and address the unconstitutional EdChoice private school voucher program that is siphoning away $1.7 billion from underfunded, shortchanged public schools and public school children.”

Mark Wallach said:

“During the budget process, the legislature decides to fund public schools at a specific amount to meet their Constitutional obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient education” to Ohio’s students. They cannot pass a budget and months later reduce that amount just because they don’t like the idea that public schools are challenging an unconstitutional alternative system of schools that will take in a whopping $1.7 billion in the next two years. If they pass this bill, we will immediately move to challenge it with an injunction, and we will win because it is blatantly unconstitutional.”

William L. Phillis said:

“Rep. Callender presents his proposed legislation as though the coalition is somehow wasting school funds, using it on frivolous litigation. Our lawsuit uncovered a blatant problem in the way state lawmakers continue to inadequately and inequitably fund our public schools. Judge Page has already found this program, EdChoice, to be unconstitutional. State lawmakers should be appreciative that we have uncovered this unconstitutional issue so they can fix it.”

Now are you fed up with the way the pro-voucher crowd in the legislature has been treating you, your district, your students, your communities?

Are you angry at the bullying and the blatant disrespect they have for you – especially the local board members who are duly elected and take an oath of office to uphold the Ohio Constitution?

Well, what are you waiting for?

Stand up to these bullies with us because they back down when we push back.

Are you part of our lawsuit? Check here.

If not, ask yourself, considering this latest craziness from Columbus, why not? Join here.

We are stronger together and we need all districts to stand up and join.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio