Facts and Figures
The State of Ohio has an annual budget of $98 Billion. Need to put that into perspective? The US Government budget is close to $7 Trillion, so Ohio’s budget is about 1½ percent the size. And out of the Ohio total budget, $13.42 Billion is spent on education, about 14%. That’s important: Education is one of the things that the state has primary control over in the “government” world. In contrast, the Federal Department of Education only spends $97 Billion a year (not including student loans) for the entire country, and Ohio only gets a small part of that, about $2.3 Billion.
Also in Ohio, local school districts more than share the cost of education with the state. They individually raise about $13.6 Billion in local taxes. So to wrap it up, the average K-12 School Districts in Ohio get about 46% of their annual budget from local taxes, another 46% from the State, and about 8% from the Federal government.
Belt Tightening
Every school district in Ohio, from the top economic areas like Upper Arlington, Wyoming, or Beachwood; to the lowest in Vinton or Morgan Counties or Portsmouth: all run on tight budgets. They spend their money to pay for teachers, and buildings, and buses, and all of the things we hope schools can do for our kids. There’s always trade-offs: new equipment or worn out stuff, hire more teachers or over-crowded classrooms; sponsor athletics, make parents pay huge costs or cut them all together.
In every, single, district, losing 2% of their funding means a lot more than just “belt tightening”. It means some kind of sacrifice, something “lost” to the education program. The more affluent districts might be able to “absorb” better than the poorer ones, but it impacts every district in some way.
The Constitution
Ohio Constitution – Article VI, Section 2
The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state; but no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.
The plain meaning of this phrase of Ohio’s Constitution is clear: “…No religious or other sect shall have any exclusive right to, or control over, any part of the school funds…”. But we know that “plain meaning” is lost on our “Radical Republican” state legislature. Four percent of the state school funds are, in fact, in control of private religious and other “sects”.
While that doesn’t seem like so much, in fact it equates to a two percent cut to every public school district in the state; two percent of “school funds” NOT given to “…secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools”. And it’s worse, not only is four percent of state funds, $475 million, going to finance private education for individual students. That number is growing, as the overall state financial support for public education is shrinking. In 2025, it’s likely to be more than $1 Billion, even as the Legislature looks to cut other education funding.
Backpack Funding
It’s called “vouchers”, or “backpack funding”. Instead of following the state constitution and “securing a thorough and efficient system of common schools”, the state of Ohio is abrogating its responsibility. All a parent has to do today is apply, and a voucher is symbolically placed in their child’s backpack, to use at any private school in the state.
It’s a very seductive argument: “Parents pay for schools, so parents should be able to use their tax money for their own child’s education”. That’s even if that education is in a private school, a religious school, or a school with an ideological agenda. Even if that school meets the clear language of the Constitution, a “religious or other sect”. And even if the parent is financially well able to afford to pay themselves for private school.
Religious Education
What’s the problem with that? First, the state has a legal obligation to the public (the “common”) schools. Funding in education is difficult at best, using a growing part of that funding to pay for private schools is syphoning money away from the public schools.
Second, many of those school vouchers are used by religious schools, placing them in direct violation of state constitution. In fact, the greatest use of the Ohio school voucher program is by the schools run by the Roman Catholic Church. They even made it a point to direct their parents to the school voucher system.
I don’t have a problem with parents choosing to send their kids to private or religious schools. “School choice” has always been allowed in Ohio, and there’s no reason to change it. But “we the people” of the state of Ohio shouldn’t be obligated to pay for their choice. If parents make that choice, then they are also making the choice to pay for it. The State of Ohio does not have a legal obligation to help. In fact, the real legal obligation of the state is clear: a thorough and efficient system of common schools.
Ohio – the Wild, Wild, West
Ohio is described as the “Wild West of universal vouchers” (Ohio Capital Journal). It is the “leading edge” of public funding of private education in the nation. And before vouchers, Ohio was the “leading edge” of private and online schooling, so leading that the largest digital school in the state, ECOT, bilked the state government of $117 million (Ohio Capital Journal). But private and religious schools regrouped from that debacle, and found legislators to continue their funding.
And what’s that about? It’s about money; financial support to the radical politicians who make up the majority of the Ohio Legislature. And, beyond that, those legislators are committed to an education that reflects their own personal values, regardless of their legal mandate to public education. They even banned “controversial” issues from discussions in Ohio’s public colleges (Ohio Capital Journal).
So what happens to our public schools? As the state puts more and more money into private education, the increased burden of public education falls to the local communities. The regular folks all over Ohio pay more in local taxes for their public schools, and then have to pay for other people’s kids to go to private schools. And the legislators continue to get more money from their private education supporters.
That’s unconstitutional by any plain reading of the words. And, more importantly, it’s not fair.
