Why Not Privatization?

We oppose the use of public funds to privatize education because privatized alternatives extract essential funds from the public schools, are not accountable to the public, and do not protect the rights of every student.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio Lawsuit

• Ohio State Fair Was a Vehicle to Inform the Public about Divisive Private School Voucher Issues, Denis Smith, Ohio Capital Journal (August 15, 2024). This article lists six well-framed talking points about the importance of the “Vouchers Hurt Ohio” lawsuit.

• “Vouchers Hurt Ohio” Lawsuit Tests Constitutional Protection of Equal Access to Public Schooling, Jan Resseger, Ohio Capital Journal, (August 14, 2024)

• The Promised Education Movement, Stephen Dyer and Maureen Reedy, Columbus Bar Lawyers Quarterly, pp. 30-37 (Fall, 2022)

• Nearly one year on, 130 school districts’ lawsuit challenging Ohio private school vouchers continues in court, Laura Hancock, Cleveland.com (November 25, 2022)

On July 1, 2022, the Northeast Ohio Friends of Public Education and Ohio Public Education Partners joined the Heights Coalition for Public Education to file an amicus brief in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to support plaintiffs in the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit. The amicus brief asks the court not to dismiss the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit, as requested by state defendants. The Vouchers Hurt Ohio litigation at issue—Columbus City School District et al. v. State of Ohio et al— challenges the constitutionality of state funded EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion vouchers.

• Heights Coalition for Public Education Press Release (July 11, 2022)

• EdChoice Voucher Lawsuit Continues Fight, Dozens of Orgs, Schools Join in Support, Susan Tebben, Ohio Capital Journal (July 13, 2022)

• Ohio Public Education Partners & Northeast Ohio Friends of Public Education Join Heights Coalition in Submitting Voucher Case Amicus Brief, Jan Resseger’s blog (July 12, 2022)

Here is the original Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit that was filed in January 2022.

• Press release   

• List of school districts that are plaintiffs in the lawsuit  

• Five Reasons Why the Lawsuit Filed by Over 100 School Districts to End Ohio’s EdChoice Vouchers Is So Urgently Important, Jan Resseger’s blog (March 1, 2022)

• Ohio pays schools that discriminate based on race, religion and disability, William L. Phillis, Columbus Dispatch guest columnist (February 11, 2022)

• School vouchers not about 'choice' or 'justice,' but about taking your money, Denis Smith, Columbus Dispatch guest columnist (February 7, 2022)

• What We All Lose When We Mistake the Market for the Public and Conflate Consumers and Citizens, Jan Resseger’s blog (January 25, 2022)

• School Vouchers Hurt Ohio Municipalities, Donna Wilson, Public Education Partners (January 24, 2022)

• Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program has failed, Dan Heintz, cleveland.com (January 19, 2022)

• Voucher program violates constitutional call for 'one system of common schools,' Jeanne Melvin’s letter to the editor, Columbus Dispatch (January 11, 2022)

• Suddes is wrong. Vouchers undermine Ohio’s ability to educate all students, Jan Resseger’s letter to the editor, cleveland.com (January 10, 2022)

• 100 Ohio School Districts File a Lawsuit Declaring EdChoice Vouchers Deprive Ohio’s Public School Districts of Essential Revenue, Jan Resseger’s Blog (January 6, 2022)

• 100 School Districts Sue Ohio Over Private School Vouchers, Saying They Unconstitutionally Take Money from Public Education, Laura Hancock, cleveland.com (January 4, 2022)

Proposed Legislation

• More Tuition Cash? Ohio Bill Would Create Educational Savings Accounts for Families with Kids in 500 Private Schools, Laura Hancock, Cleveland Plain Dealer (March 5, 2024).

Ohio’s Current Vouchers

The Fiscal Year 24-25 Ohio Budget explodes the size of Ohio’s EdChoice Expansion school voucher program.  Students in families with income of up to 450 percent of the federal poverty level, or $135,000 for a family of four, qualify for a full voucher of $6,165 for K-12 students and $8,407 for high schoolers. But the financial entitlement doesn’t stop there, even for those families making more than $135,000 annually. Students in families with even higher incomes are eligible for a 50% or 25% or a minimal 10% voucher as family income gets higher.  The funding for the universal voucher program is extracted from the state’s school foundation budget, but dangerously, legislators have established no control or cap on future growth of the new budget’s universal voucher program.

• Private schools are not present in more nearly half of Ohio’s counties. In a major report, the Ohio League of Women Voters concludes that funding vouchers punishes rural taxpayers by taking their funds and spending them on schools that they cannot access, taking desperately needed resources away from the public schools they rely on. 

• Ohio GOP Politicians Refuse to Accept Accountability for Voucher Boondoggle, Extremist Agenda, Mary Lou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal (June 18, 2024).

• Ohio Lawmakers Are Giving More Than $1 Billion to Private Schools While Public Schools Suffer, Marilou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal (April 2, 2024).

• Will Untenable Voucher Expansion Threaten Public School Funding in Ohio?, Jan Resseger’s Blog (March 28, 2024).

• As Expected, Ohio’s New Voucher Expansion Benefits Wealthy Students Already Attending Private Schools, Jan Resseger’s blog (March 5, 2024).

• Fleeing Troubled Public Schools? Ohio Voucher Data Shows Many Families Already Enrolled in Private Schools, Laura Hancock, Cleveland Plain Dealer (March 2, 2024).

• Ohio's Disastrous Voucher Explosion, Steven Dyer, 10th Period Blog (November 29, 2023).

• Opportunity Hoarding in the Ohio Budget… With Public School Funding the Most Important Exception, Jan Resseger’s blog (July 11, 2023).

• New Ohio Budget Fully Funds Next Step in the Fair School Funding Plan, but also Explosively Expands School Vouchers, Jan Resseger’s blog (July 6, 2023).

• Final Ohio Education Budget Expands Vouchers, Limits Board of Ed Powers, Susan Tebben, Ohio Capital Journal (July 4, 2023).

• Ohio Senate’s ‘affordable’ education approach meant bolstering private school aid while hindering public schools, Susan Kaeser, Cleveland Plain Dealer (June 25, 2023).

• Ohio Senate Republicans Working to Dismantle Public Education in Favor of Private Religious Schools, Marilou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal (June 13, 2023).

• Vouchers Aren’t about Education and Freedom, but They Are about Disunion, Denis Smith, Commentary from the Ohio Capital Journal (May 1, 2023).

• The Fiscal Consequences of Private School Vouchers, Samuel E. Abrams and Steven J. Koutsavlis, Public Funds, Public Schools (spring, 2023).

 Charter Schools in Ohio

• Disingenuous Charter School Industry Leaving Kids in Lurch, Taking Our Money, Bill Phillis, The Columbus Dispatch (June 14, 2023)

• Good News: U.S. Dept. of Ed. Strengthens Needed Regulation of Federal Charter Schools Program, Jan Resseger’s blog (July 5, 2022)

• What the Biden Administration’s New Rules for Charter Schools Say, Valerie Strauss, Washington Post (July 5, 2022)

• Ohio Charter School Sector Epitomizes All the Reasons Why the Federal Charter Schools Program Must Be Reformed, Jan Resseger’s Blog (April 28, 2022)

• The Network for Public Education published a report from a comprehensive study on charter school closures, instability, and churn: Broken Promises: An Analysis of Charter School Closures from 1999-2017. (August 2020)

• Susie Kaeser’s Plain Dealer op ed explains why we should rethink school vouchers during the pandemic. (May 2020)

• Legislative manipulation of voucher eligibility criteria has been used to expand the number of vouchers in Ohio. This chart chronicles the expansion of the EdChoice voucher scheme and how public schools have been impacted.

• The Network for Public Education explains school privatization in their Toolkit.

• The Network for Public Education has issued two reports about troubling features of the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program (CSP): Asleep at the Wheel and Still Asleep at the Wheel.

• The Network for Public Education produced a major report on Charters and Consequences.

• Gordon Lafer, Ph.D., and In the Public Interest produced a major report on The Cost of Charter Schools for Public School Districts.