EDUCATION

Ohio's public schools are in crisis, and it didn't happen by accident. The legislature passed a bipartisan plan to finally fund our schools fairly, then broke its own promise. It funded schools $2.75 billion below what that plan called for, shifted the cost onto your property taxes, and found more than a billion dollars a year for private school vouchers with almost none of the accountability it demands of public schools.

Meanwhile, a Columbus teacher describes classrooms of 42 kids, Lima schools cut 24 and a half positions this spring, and 70% of new school levies fail because homeowners can't afford another hike. Every superintendent in Allen County signed the same letter asking the state to step up. This is what happens when Columbus stops working for your community. What that shift costs you at home is on the economy page.

The short version

  • Finish and fund the bipartisan school funding plan Columbus walked away from.
  • Vouchers paid for somewhere other than your public schools, under the same public rules.
  • Property tax relief that lasts, by putting the state back to paying its share of schools.

What I'll fight for in Columbus

  1. Fair funding, fully implemented. Finish and fund the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan, written together by Bob Cupp, a Lima Republican, and John Patterson, an Ashtabula Democrat. Columbus funded the plan's first two phases in two straight budgets, while it was cheap. When the final bill came due, the House Speaker announced, "We won't be doing the Cupp-Patterson Plan…" (Lima News, April 2, 2025), and the budget came in $2.75 billion below what the formula called for. A promise made is a promise owed. I'll vote for the budget that finishes the plan and against any budget that keeps walking away from it.
  2. Vouchers can't be paid for out of your public schools. Ohio spent more than a billion dollars on private school vouchers last year, and the current two-year budget sets aside $2.44 billion, the most ever. Vouchers and public schools are paid out of the same state budget, so when one grows that fast, the other is what gives — and what gave was the school funding formula the legislature promised to finish. Here in Lima, the district's then-superintendent said last year that 591 students were using vouchers, that only 28 of them were low-income, and that nearly five million dollars in public funds was leaving the district. This isn't about telling a family where to send their kids. It's arithmetic: if Columbus wants a voucher program, it has to find the money somewhere other than the schools that take every child who walks in the door. I'll fight for accountability, transparency, and enrollment caps on the voucher and charter programs — published budgets, state tests, and the same anti-discrimination rules public schools already follow — and I'll vote against any budget that grows the program faster than its accountability.
  3. Targeted property tax relief. Your property taxes climbed because the state cut its share of school funding: from 44.8% to 33.5%, by Allen County's own superintendents' count, while Ohio fell to 45th in the nation. Columbus did pass a package of relief bills in December 2025 and a one-time credit this June for some seniors and disabled homeowners. None of it restores the state's share, so your school district still has to come back to you with another levy. I'll fight for circuit-breaker relief that caps property tax bills for homeowners and renters, and for the state to carry its share of school costs again. That's the relief that lasts.

I'll also fight for

  • Universal public preschool. Allen County went from 60 in-home childcare providers to 15 in eight years; a public preschool option helps parents get back to work and kids arrive at kindergarten ready.
  • Fully funding STRS. Teachers' pensions run on contributions from educators and their employers, not the state, so the honest lever is the employer rate: I'll support raising it, and vote for the state school funding that lets districts carry it without cutting classrooms to do it. I'll also oppose the budget maneuver that cut the board's elected educator seats from 7 to 3 and raised political appointees from 4 to 8, inserted at 1 a.m. with no public testimony; a court has paused that change while educators' lawsuit is heard.
  • Support for teachers, faculty, and staff. A $50,000 minimum teacher salary, grow-your-own recruitment, free school meals: I'll vote for every bill that gets us there, whoever sponsors it. Also protected collective bargaining and tenure, paid family leave, real support for student teachers so the cost of training isn't what keeps someone out of the profession, and an end to teachers buying classroom supplies out of their own pockets.
  • Classrooms over politics. Politicians should spend less time telling teachers what they can't say and more time paying what they owe. More on where I stand on those questions.

Our kids deserve better. Join us.

GET INVOLVED

Where the teacher-pay numbers come from. A legislative package introduced in the Ohio House in May 2024 would raise Ohio's minimum teacher salary to $50,000, create a Grow Your Own teacher training program, and fund universal public preschool and free meals in public schools. Read the announcement of the package

They passed a plan to fund our schools fairly, then broke their own promise

Between 1997 and 2002, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled four separate times that Ohio's school funding system was unconstitutional. In the first DeRolph decision, the court wrote that the system must undergo a "complete systematic overhaul," because leaning so heavily on local property taxes created unfair gaps between wealthy and low-income districts. Representatives Bob Cupp, a Republican from Lima, and John Patterson, a Democrat from Ashtabula, answered with the Fair School Funding Plan. An earlier version passed the Ohio House 87 to 9, and the legislature enacted the plan in 2021 with a six-year phase-in. Columbus funded the first two phases. When the final phase came due, the House Speaker announced, "We won't be doing the Cupp-Patterson Plan, but all (school) districts will be getting an increase." The enacted budget funded schools $2.75 billion below what the formula called for. That wasn't belt-tightening. That was breaking a promise to every kid in Ohio.

Columbus cut school funding and sent the bill to your mailbox

Ohio dropped from 35th to 45th in the nation in the state share of school funding. Allen County's superintendents put the numbers in writing: the state's share fell from 44.8% to 33.5%, more than eleven points below the national average, while the local share of the burden rose from 49.5% to 53.1%. That didn't make schools cheaper. It made your property taxes higher. Every time Columbus cuts its share, your local school board has to come back to you asking for another levy.

  • Ohio's state share of education funding is 33.5%, against a national average of about 45%; Ohio fell from 24th to 41st in state revenue per pupil and funds students $2,672 below the national average. Allen County school officials' letter, October 2025
  • Ohioans paid $16.7 billion in property taxes last year, the eighth-highest property tax rate in the country, and Ohio has dropped to 45th in the state share of K-12 revenue. Statehouse News Bureau, September 2025

A billion dollars for private schools while your kids' school can't keep the lights on

Ohio spent $1.09 billion on private school vouchers in fiscal year 2025, almost double what it spent two years earlier, and the current two-year budget sets aside $2.44 billion, the most the state has ever spent on the program. A Franklin County judge ruled the EdChoice voucher program unconstitutional in a 47-page decision. The state's response was to appeal and keep the money flowing while the case heads toward the Ohio Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Lima's public schools cut 24 and a half positions this March against a $6 million deficit.

Private schools get public money with zero public accountability

Public schools have to publish their budgets, take standardized tests, issue report cards, follow anti-discrimination laws, and accept every student who walks through the door. Private schools that take your tax dollars through EdChoice don't have to do any of that. They can turn away students based on religion, sexual orientation, or disability. They don't have to tell you how they spend your money. And the judge who ruled the program unconstitutional found that private voucher schools receive roughly double the per-pupil state funding of public schools.

  • Canton City School Board President Scott Russ: "They're not subject to any of the state testing. They're not subject to a state report card. They are not subject to public records requests." Ideastream Public Media, June 2025
  • Judge Page: "'School choice' here is made by the private school, not 'as the result of independent decisions of parents and students.'" Ohio Capital Journal, June 2025

This is what underfunding looks like in the classroom

When you underfund schools for twenty years, you don't get an abstraction. You get a Columbus teacher who has stood in front of 42 students at a time. You get Lima cutting 24 and a half positions in a single March board vote. You get Elida cutting eleven jobs to climb out of deficit spending. And you get 70% of new school levies failing, because the state keeps pushing its costs onto your property taxes.

When 330 school districts stood up for their kids, Columbus tried to take their money

More than 330 Ohio school districts, including Lima and Elida, joined the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of EdChoice. The legislature's response was not to fix the program. It was House Bill 671, a bill that would let the state withhold funding from any district that sues it over school funding. A former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court called it "another attempt to intimidate and bully." If a law like that had been on the books in the 1990s, the DeRolph case might never have reached a courtroom. The bill is sitting in the House Finance Committee.

  • HB 671 would let the state withhold foundation funding from any district involved in legal action over school funding; former Chief Justice Eric Brown called it "another attempt to intimidate and bully." Statehouse News Bureau, February 2026
  • Dayton school board member Jocelyn Rhynard: "If this bill had been in law at that time, we would not have been able to address the unconstitutionality in the courts, and we would not have the DeRolph decision." Statehouse News Bureau, February 2026

Google gets a 15-year tax break. Your schools get $250,000 a year.

Google is building a $500 million data center in Allen County. It comes with a 15-year property tax abatement, 50 full-time jobs, and $250,000 a year for Elida schools. Deals like this are spreading across Ohio: the value of tax-abated property statewide went from $5.7 billion in 2004 to $26.6 billion in 2024. That is money that could be funding schools, and every dollar of it was somebody's decision.

  • Google's Lima-area data center: $500 million investment, 50 full-time jobs, a 15-year tax abatement, and $250,000 a year to Elida schools. Lima News, March 2026
  • Value of property with tax abatements: $5.7 billion in 2004 to $26.6 billion in 2024, an 82.2% increase. Statehouse News Bureau, September 2025

Every superintendent in Allen County signed the same letter. That tells you something.

In October 2025, every superintendent and treasurer from all ten Allen County school districts signed a joint letter to the community. Not a political letter. Not a partisan letter. A letter from educators who said: the state has shifted the burden to you, and you deserve to know the truth. They wrote that Ohio's state share of education funding dropped from 44.8% to 33.5% while your local property tax burden jumped from 49.5% to 53.1%. They asked the state to be "partners in this solution, not bystanders watching local communities struggle."