Lt. Gov. Jon Husted must be very worried

June 11, 2024

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted must be very worried.

This past week, he took the unprecedented step of trying to bully board members of Upper Arlington Local Schools by sending them a letter full of misinformation in an attempt to dissuade them from joining the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit.

Husted is not the first state official to try to bully local school districts. Senate President Matt Huffman worked with State Auditor Keith Faber to send threatening letters to school board treasurers.

Stop and think about why they are doing this?

Husted in his letter to Upper Arlington said the question of constitutionality for the voucher program had been settled 22 years ago. 

This is not true. If it had been settled, we would not have a court date. Husted knows vouchers are scheduled to go on trial on Nov. 4 of this year. 

Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page has accepted all five of our counts challenging the constitutionality of the harmful universal private school voucher program despite efforts by the Ohio Attorney General and out-of-state groups to have the case dismissed.

So if Husted is so sure of his voucher program – yes, in the letter he took credit for creating it as an Ohio House member – then why is he so worried?

Is it because Husted and the pro-voucher gang could lose in court, where the law and the Ohio Constitution matter?

This is why Husted went to such lengths to stretch the truth in his letter to the Upper Arlington board.

Husted’s letter said 130,000 students across Ohio are enrolled in the EdChoice program, and most do not have the means to send their children to a private school without the voucher. 

The vast majority of families taking vouchers this year, as the program grew from 24,000 to more than 90,000 students, are wealthy, and their children were already enrolled in private school so this is a refund and rebate scheme for the well-to-do.

In his desperation, Husted tried to say families with autistic children would be denied a voucher, but our lawsuit focuses solely on EdChoice so the vouchers for autism are not impacted.

Wrong again, Mr. Lt. Gov.

Finally, Husted told the board they would be wasting thousands of dollars by joining the lawsuit. 

Vouchers Hurt Ohio charges $2 per pupil per year so Upper Arlington would pay about $12,000 a year for their roughly 6,000 students to join the lawsuit.

This year, 348 students in the Upper Arlington school district are taking vouchers with high school vouchers worth up to $8,407 and K-8 vouchers worth $6,165. These are tax dollars going to private, most often religious schools.

We believe tax dollars should be invested in public schools, and we believe the Ohio Constitution affirms that idea.

Husted obviously isn’t doing the math.

But this is what bullies do. We won’t be bullied. We aren’t going away. 

Vouchers go on trial in November.

Is your district part of the lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Join here.