When we let vouchers drain our schools, it hurts us all.
Vouchers Hurt Ohio is a growing coalition of public school districts that have come together to sue the state over the unconstitutional and harmful private school voucher program.
The private school voucher program hurts our schools and our kids by funneling money away from our public schools into private schools. This year, anti-public school lawmakers have a universal voucher program making all parents, including millionaires and billionaires, eligible for at least a partial voucher. Parents that want to send their kids to private school use the private school voucher program as a refund and rebate system so that they can use taxpayer money to fund their childs’ private education. The private school voucher program has exploded with more than 91,000 vouchers being issued and the cost is expected to exceed $1 billion in the 2023-24 school year.
Ohio’s private school vouchers began as a “pilot program,” but it has now become a refund and rebate scheme to reimburse families already committed to placing their children in private schools. The drain on public schools and children has been harmful, growing from $42 million a year in 2008 to more than $1 billion in the 2023-24 school year.
Senate President Matt Huffman has publicly stated he would like to provide tax dollars for private school operators to build schools in areas of the state where they currently don’t exist. This is a direct threat to public schools, especially in rural areas where people support and understand their local public schools are the bedrock of their communities.
When it started as an experiment, the private school voucher program was $1,229 per voucher. In the 2023-24 school year, 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.
We have precedent in Ohio for going directly to the courts when the Governor and legislature ignore the will of the people. The Coalition for Equity and Adequacy In School Funding sued the state in the ‘90s over school funding and the Ohio Supreme Court in 1997 ruled in our favor that the system was unconstitutional. We are not alone in this battle either as coalitions similar to ours are forming in other states to challenge the constitutionality of private school vouchers through the legal system.
You can read the full 5 counts here.
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 private schools is a dollar less for public schools. Local school districts, losing tax dollars to private schools, will be forced to go back to local taxpayers more and more often with levy requests. There will be 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.
For school districts wanting to join our coalition, call William L. Phillis, Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding at 614.228.6540 or email him at ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net
For a detailed description of how to join our coalition, download this PDF here.
To date, over 200 school districts have joined our coalition. The districts represent a diverse cross section of large city, small town, urban, rural and suburban schools and communities. You can find the full list of districts here.
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No. We send out weekly emails to keep our supporters up to date and informed about our effort to win in the court of public opinion and the court of law. We do not ask for contributions. Ever. The best way for you to be part of the campaign is to sign up for our email list and follow us on our social media pages. You can sign up for weekly updates here.
Yes, in study after study in Ohio and across the country, public school students outperform their private school peer group in academic testing. It is a myth that private schools offer students a better education.
Extreme lawmakers, afraid to be held accountable to voters, suck the universal private school voucher into the two year state budget to avoid accountability. This is a continued attack on the public school system as extreme lawmakers try to undermine public schools and create a separate but unequal class of private schools.
It’s possible, but also likely. The extreme lawmakers behind the universal voucher program, have said they were inspired by West Virginia’s recent law where they allowed homeschoolers to receive vouchers.
For more information you can explore our website or reach out to William L. Phillis, Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding. He can be reached at ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net.