The Greater Western Reserve School Funding Forum

September 23, 2026

Good Tuesday morning,

A week from tonight, on Tuesday September 29, the LaBrae Local School District in Trumbull County is hosting the Greater Western Reserve School Funding Forum.

We imagine you are going to see more and more of these local forums popping up around the state.

At LaBrae, this is an opportunity for local parents, taxpayers, property owners, community members and leaders to hear an expert panel talk about how state and local policies are affecting our public schools, our pocketbooks, our wallets and our local taxes.

The program will start at 6:30 p.m. in the LaBrae High School Auditorium.

And it is a great program.

The Patterson in the Cupp Patterson Fair School Funding Plan, former state Rep. John Patterson, will kick off the evening with help from Ryan Pendleton, a found member of the workgroup that developed the constitutional formula for ensuring every child in Ohio has a high quality education.

Patterson and Pendleton will discuss Fair School Funding – Then & Now, and it will surely look at the pro-voucher lawmakers in Columbus who abandoned their own formula and denied local public schools nearly $3 billion in the current two-year state budget.

Next up on the agenda: Ohio Tax Reform, a discussion of local taxes with a panel consisting of Ryan Ghizzoni of Frontline, Katie Johnson, executive director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials, and Terry Armstrong, treasurer of the Lakeview Local School District.

Then former state Rep. Stephen Dyer will give an update on the current EdChoice private school voucher program and the footprint it is having on schools and property owners, and William L. Phillis will talk about our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of EdChoice vouchers.

It will be a great evening of discussion and the event is free and open to the public.

The host is expecting to see folks from Trumbull, Mahoning, Portage and Ashtabula counties, and anyone considered part of the Western Reserve is encouraged to attend.

As we mentioned, there are forums like this being held all across the state.

For example, on the same evening, the League of Women Voters of Chillicothe is holding a public school forum in Ross County.

Here’s what happens when people find out the legislature shortchanged public schools $3 billion in the two-year budget while siphoning off nearly $2 billion to private school vouchers that are going mainly to wealthy families whose children were already enrolled in mainly religious schools: They get enraged and they then start to get engaged.

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

If not, why not? Why isn’t your local school board, treasurer and superintendent standing up for your community, your children, your public schools and local taxpayers? Learn how to join here.

Sincerely,
Vouchers Hurt Ohio