Ohio’s future depends on all our kids getting a great education - no matter their race, ability, zip code, or family income.
Our Problem
A group of extremist politicians want to take our money out of our public schools so they can give tax breaks to their corporate backers and help their wealthy friends pay for private school tuition. Others claim to support children and families, but promote policies that drain resources from our schools – just a bit more slowly.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman has pulled out the rug from under public schools by announcing he has no intention of continuing the Fair School Funding Plan, and instead wants to continue diverting even more money to private school vouchers.
Gov. DeWine outwardly wants our children and schools to thrive, but he is making backdoor cuts to public schools by not basing funding on updated costs or including the true cost of educating children with special needs, from disadvantaged backgrounds or English Language Learners.
For decades, the Ohio Supreme Court issued rulings that Ohio’s school funding system violates the state constitution by relying too heavily on local property taxes, creating disparities that leave too many students behind, and pitting parents and communities against each other.
The lack of state funding forces districts to ask communities to increase their property taxes - something that is increasingly more difficult to do amid higher property valuations. This exacerbates inequality, penalizing students in districts with lower property values or where voters won’t pass a levy.
Our Solution —
The Fair School Funding Plan:
Implementing the Fair School Funding Plan will transform education by:
Ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve while also attracting and keeping top educators,
Providing individualized and specialized attention for students, leading to higher graduation rates and better college and vocation readiness,
Investing in better busing and reliable transportation, leading to improved attendance and access to learning,
Fully equipping special education and English Language Learning (ELL) services programs to meet the needs of all students, and;
Expanding mental health and social-emotional learning resources to support well-rounded children.
