Public Schools Shortchanged $3 billion

March 31, 2026

Good Tuesday morning,

A lot has been made of the fact that state lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine approved a two-year state budget that will send $1.7 billion to the harmful EdChoice private school voucher scheme.

These are public tax dollars.

At the same time, less has been said about the legislature and DeWine shortchanging our local public schools to the tune of $3 billion in the next two years.

THREE BILLION DOLLARS!

A few years ago, two lawmakers, Bob Cupp, a Republican from Allen County, and John Patterson, a Democrat from Ashtabula County, worked with a lot of their fellow lawmakers, education experts and advocates and developed a constitutional funding formula for Ohio’s schools.

The Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan was accepted by the governor and lawmakers, and a plan to phase in the funding over six years, or three biennual budget cycles, was approved.

This was historic and great news for public schools and the children in those public schools.

Lawmakers kept their promise for four years, but an unfunny thing happened on the way to constitutionality in 2025.

House Speaker Matt Huffman said Cupp Patterson was a fantasy and unsustainable.

Huffman scrapped the funding level necessary to be constitutional, the funding level lawmakers and the governor agreed was needed to ensure each child in Ohio’s public schools would have a thorough and efficient opportunity for an education.

Gone.

Here’s what Policy Matters Ohio has to say about the end of the Fair School Funding Plan.

“The Fair School Funding Plan was based on the actual cost of educating every student. It would have provided an additional $3.0 billion to Ohio school districts over the biennium. Now, including a new, misguided performance supplement, Ohio’s operating budget for fiscal years 2026-27 provides just 9.3 percent of the additional state funding schools need to educate every student.”

We’ll say it again: the $1.7 billion for the EdChoice private school voucher scheme comes out of the same line-item in the budget that funds public schools.

Do you want to see how your district was shortchanged? Here is a link to research by Policy Matters Ohio showing each school district.

In June, 2025, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled EdChoice unconstitutional on three counts. The second count being the state cannot underfund public schools at an unconstitutional level while diverting public tax dollars to private schools.

If your district is being shortchanged, you should be part of our historic lawsuit.

Check here.

Join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio