Election lesson: Public schools won

November 11, 2025

Good Tuesday morning,

A week ago today, voters across Ohio went to the polls to make decisions about their local elected officials, school board members, levies and other important matters.

It sounds crazy, but sadly it is true: Many people who run for local school board positions are pro-voucher and anti-public schools.

Fortunately, last Tuesday, public schools and their students were big winners as local voters supported levies, and elected pro-public school candidates for their local school boards while rejecting many anti-public school candidates run by pro-voucher groups and public school haters.

In Southwestern City Schools, one of the largest districts in the state in Franklin County near Columbus, Kelly Dillon, Camile Peterson and Chelsea Alkire won election as a slate.

Southwestern was one of the original districts to sign on to our Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit, but the board of elections were targeted a few years ago by pro-voucher, anti-public school groups, and dropped out.

The election of these three candidates should help our effort to fight back against harmful private school vouchers.

In Delaware County, pro-public school candidates Molly Snodgrass and Jessica Parent were elected to the Big Walnut Schools board of education.

In northeast Ohio, Mentor votes rejected a conservative slate that called itself “Team ISO” that campaigned on banning books, cuts to spending and “culture war” issues. They were soundly defeated by voters in one of Ohio’s more conservative counties.

While Team ISO was attacking the Mentor schools, school board President Maggie Cook was reelected after talking about AP courses, College Credit Plus programs, their career-technical opportunities and other pro-public school ideas.

In Akron, voters sent School Board President Carla Jackson packing. Four years ago, Jackson was unopposed. Last week, she got just 10 percent of the vote. Jackson is the head of middle school academics at the Emmanuel Christian Academy.

In Upper Arlington, a district that joined our lawsuit with a 3-2 vote, Board President Lou Sauter, a no vote, lost reelection.

In Forest Hills, near Cincinnati, voters rejected four anti-public school candidates and supported a candidate who ran on the platform “making school board meetings boring again.”

During his successful campaign for office, Jeff Nye told the Cincinnati Enquirer: “We need to fill the leadership vacuum at the top of the district and put the focus back on education and student wellness, not on politics or imagined grievances, and make sure the kids know that all students are welcome in Forest Hills.”

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

If not, why not? Learn more here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio