“Advocates Who Want to Protect Ohio’s Public Schools This Year Must Pursue Three Priorities”
See this blog from Jan Resseger, Cleveland Heights resident and long-time school funding advocate: https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2023/02/09/37141/
Sample Testimony - Given by Susie Kaeser on SB 178, a prior version of current SB 1. (Substance like SB 1.)
Dear Speaker Cupp,
I know you are committed to high quality public education in our state. I urge you to stop the hasty end-of-session push to reshape education policy making in Ohio. It will not improve education.
I believe SB 178 would set back education policy making. It is hard to see how this would improve the way we shape policies to meet the needs of our diverse students and diverse communities. It would replace the unique perspectives provided by multiple elected officials and public participation in policy deliberation with an all-knowing leader. This may be expedient but not prudent or democratic. It’s hard to see how excluding public input and the voices of those tasked with leading our public schools, will produce better policy or policy that is welcomed by those who must implement it.
Each of Ohio’s 610 local school districts and 49 vocational education districts is unique. Local preferences, local resources, community values, demographics, educator expertise, and local history result in different needs and remedies. Our tradition of local control honors that diversity. It’s a brilliant solution.
As state policy making shapes more and more of the local agenda, it reduces local control. This loss of independence makes it even more important that the public and practitioners have access to state level policy makers and a forum for making their views known. The State Board of Education provides that venue. Moving education policy leadership to an appointed individual suggests that neither the citizen perspective nor the experience of practitioners is valued or welcomed. It’s a terrible mistake.
The state board member that represents me epitomizes the responsive elected official. She knows every superintendent in her district and meets with them regularly. She shows up at school events and meets families and students. She is a frequent speaker at public forums. She isn’t just visible, she listens. She is in touch with who we are and what we care about. She plays a fundamental role as connector between the public and state government. This means that when she participates in crafting the state’s education plan or considers the rules for implementing state policy, she is informed by the reality of the diverse districts she represents. Her availability and visibility also make the public more supportive of state policy because we know someone who knows us helped shape it.
There is no way the individual directing a massive state bureaucracy could play the role that the state board members perform. A more effective approach to developing responsive education policy is to retain the powers of the State Board of Education, and ensure that all members are elected.
Not only does the content of this bill undermine representative policy making, but the speed shows a terrible disregard for the public and thoughtful deliberation. It undermines public confidence in our elected officials and state government.
Please use your influence to stop this bill.
Sincerely,
Susan Kaeser, League of Women Voters Ohio Education Advocate
Sample Testimony - Given by Robin Koslen
Honorable Representative Bird and members of the House Education Committee,
I am writing to urge you to fully fund the Cupp-Patterson school funding plan and reject the plan to fund vouchers up to 400% of the poverty level.
For years Ohio has underfunded our public schools. The Cupp Patterson School funding plan has been a multi year attempt to determine the true cost of an education. 90% of Ohio’s children attend public schools. It is the legislature’s duty to fund the schools where the vast majority of students attend in a manner that allows our children to receive the education they are entitled to. Last year the Ohio legislature recognized the need to fund our public schools in a constitutional manner. That legislature entrusted the current legislature to do just that.
The backpack bill must be shown for what it truly is, robbing the many for the good of the few. Although 90% of Ohio students attend public schools, presently those students get only 75% of the State’s education dollars while the 10% who attend non public schools get a 25% share. Parents should be allowed and encouraged to send their children to the schools that best meet their children’s and family’s needs. It is our obligation as citizens though to fund quality public schools that accept every child that comes to the school door, abides by state requirements and standards, and is responsible to the taxpayers. If parents want a different form of education for their children they should pay for that education themselves just as generations of parents before them have done. For the legislature to choose to take citizen tax dollars and fund unregulated schools and then allow the left over dollars to go to public schools is patently absurd.
I urge you to commit yourselves to taking care of the vast majority of Ohio’s children attending our public schools and reject the plan to use our tax dollars for unregulated, potentially corrupt and wasteful institutions.
Resources for Anti-Voucher Testimony
Dan Heintz’s guest column from www.cleveland.com: https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2022/01/ohios-edchoice-voucher-program-has-failed-dan-heintz.html
Great editorial from Ohio Capital Journal: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/02/02/ohio-cheats-public-schools-and-taxpayers-by-funneling-to-private-schools-without-accountability/
Ohio Education Association’s talking points:
Voucher plans drain needed resources from public school children—90% of Ohio’s students.
Passage of universal vouchers would blow a hole in the state budget and undercut the ability to fully and fairly fund Ohio’s public schools.
The fiscal note on this bill estimates an annual cost of $1.1 billion a year just to pay for vouchers for students who currently attend private schools.
HB 11 would extend vouchers to homeschool students and non-chartered private schools which provide no state oversight.
Spending money on private school tuition is not an effective use of taxpayer dollars. Studies have shown that nearly 90% of voucher students do worse on state tests than students in public schools in the same zip codes.
Families that choose to send their children to private schools should not expect the state’s taxpayers to pay for that choice.
Private schools pick and choose which students to accept and charge tuition over and above the voucher amount, unlike the public schools which are free to attend and open to all. Rather than throwing money at private school tuition, our policymakers need to finish the job and fully implement the Fair School Funding Plan.
