Last week, state Senator Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) commended the Toledo Public Schools’ decision to join a lawsuit, filed by the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding and Vouchers Hurt Ohio, which challenges the expansion of Ohio’s school voucher program. Toledo now joins more than 100 other Ohio school districts in declaring their opposition to the state’s school voucher program.
“The Toledo Public School Board made the right decision for Ohio’s public school system and its taxpayers,” Fedor said. “For over 30 years, Republicans have taken money away from our children’s public education system to fund private schools that are not held to the same high standard of transparency and oversight for taxpayer dollars,” she added.
“The Ohio Constitution requires lawmakers to create ‘a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state’ – a provision that Republicans in the General Assembly repeatedly violate.”
In 2020, the Cincinnati Enquirer looked at nearly 2.5 million test scores from schools in more than 150 Ohio cities during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. It found that in 88 percent of the cities in the analysis, public school districts achieved better state testing results than the private schools in the same city.
“Research has proven that the voucher system does not educate children as well as the public school system, but the GOP-controlled legislature ignores this fact to line the pockets of their friends in the private sector,” Fedor said.
In 2008, Ohio’s school voucher program diverted $42 million of public funds from the state’s public school system to private schools. Since then, that number has increased to what is now a $350 million annual venture.
“The time is now for us to hold Republicans accountable and prevent another disaster like the 2017 ECOT scandal. We must stop throwing money at these irresponsible institutions.”