07/18/2025
I want to talk about public education.
Public education is the outward tangible expression of our very best collective wishes for each other: Equity. Access. Inclusivity.
Most of us probably attended public schools, and/or have kids in our lives now attending them. Public schools are for every single child in our neighborhoods, no matter what, and they help our community grow intelligent and capable adults.
As a public good, these schools are supported by the taxpayers, coming in from three different levels: federal, state, and local. Unfortunately, actions on the first two levels threaten to decimate the public education system and leave local communities out to dry.
On the federal level, the Department of Education is being broken apart piece by piece, with the goal of eliminating it completely. Then once that happens, forget accessibility. Students on IEPs, students needing accommodations to support their learning, they’ll all be left behind. Labeled “too expensive.” “Not worthy.”
Also on the federal level, the department of education is withholding congressionally approved taxpayer education funding. There are 6.2 billion dollars frozen nationwide, and 185 million dollars just in Ohio. This equals the salary for over 2,700 teachers, and remember, that’s YOUR money.
At the state level, the problem gets exponentially worse. Ohio education funding was ruled unconstitutional last century. In 1997. The 2016 bipartisan Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan was the answer to that, and school districts like Hilliard created their budgets and plans around it. Remember our levy discussions last year?
Yet the general assembly refuses to honor the promise of that plan, passing a budget that falls woefully short of fully funding public schools while also directing public funds - our taxes - into unaccountable vouchers to private schools. Taxpayer dollars siphoned off to a place taxpayers have no oversight.
This will leave the last source of education funding, the local community and their property taxes, holding the bag for all of it. It will put our district and others around the state in a constant levy cycle. This is intentional. It’s designed to cripple public schools, thereby lowering their quality and giving themselves an excuse to bolster private and for-profit schools.
Right now, the Ohio state house is on summer recess, but they are taking the unusual step of pausing their summer break to return next week, July 21st. Not to help the citizens of Ohio, but for the sole purpose of overriding the governor’s vetoes of several school and property tax-related provisions in the state budget.
Here in Brunswick, we did our work and passed our levy last year. We did our part, depending upon the Fair School Funding plan that was implemented in 2016. And we deserve to have our good faith plans realized, which requires the full cooperation of the state legislature.
John Lewis once said, “We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.”
The time has chosen us to defend public education. Call your state representatives and tell them NOT to override the governor’s budget vetoes. Call the House Speaker. Word is that the Speaker does not currently have the votes he needs to override the property-tax-related vetoes - Keep that pressure up. Call the chair of the House Finance Committee.
Remind them there’s a reason their own party’s governor vetoed the items he did. And finally stay informed and stay connected. On social media, follow Indivisible, Red Wine & Blue, Honesty for Ohio Ed, and your local school districts.
Know what is happening around you, and make good trouble.
Please give credit to my friend Sarah Myers for pulling all this together and our friends at Honesty for Ohio Education for educating us all about these inequities.
