The Ohio Constitution charges the state legislature to adequately fund public schools and not fund non-public schools. This is a very clear mandate but our General Assembly (controlled by Republicans) is ignoring the constitution. Columbus City Schools has had to cut approximately $50 million dollars out of their budget, shut schools, and lay off employees; and our children suffer. Our legislators–in violation of our constitution–has given about 1/2 of the public dollars to nonpublic schools. The President of the Ohio Senate wants to take over control of school districts to prevent them from suing over the unconstitutional funding. There have been 4 court rulings going back 25 years to require the General Assembly to design a formula for school funding that does not rely on property taxes. But they have not done this yet–ignoring the Supreme Cout of Ohio. How can they get away with this? It is simple. The Republicans get campaign funds from nonpublic schools and voucher organizations. A large percentage of families getting vouchers have students who never have attended public schools and have a family income of in excess of $100,000. These are not needy families. What to do? Find out who your state legislators are and their political affiliation. Chances are that if they are Republicans hey are supporters of legislation taking dollars away from public schools and giving it to nonpublic entities. Contact your representatives and ask how they voted on school funding and tell them that you expect them to follow the constitutional mandate regarding funding. Vote them out. It is not too much to expect them to listen to us and to follow the law.

There is a book about school vouchers. It is eye-opening. It is short but definitely necessary reading if you want to see what is being done by the rich to attack public education. Read The Privateers by Josh Cowen. Soon I will give a brief of his book but you should read it in its entirety.