Jan Resseger writes here about the tussle in the legislature over the Ohio education budget. Funding was increased for public schools, but funding for charters and vouchers was also increased. And taxes were cut. Republican supporters of public schools saved the day from the voracious privatizers, led by Andrew Brenner, who is hostile to public schools.
Resseger writes:
The Ohio Constitution defines public schools as an institution embodying our mutual responsibility to each other as fellow citizens and to Ohio’s children. The budget conference committee’s restoration of the Fair School Funding Plan, even if limited only to the upcoming biennium, will restore adequate funding to the schools that serve our state’s 1.7 million public school students and will significantly equalize children’s educational opportunity across our state’s 610 school districts.
However, the expansion of vouchers and charter schools opens the door for future growth of school privatization. Ohio’s parents and citizens who believe in a strong system of public education will have work to do to preserve the Fair School Funding Plan beyond the current two-year limit and to prevent the rapid expansion of vouchers and charters at the expense of public schools in future state budgets.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reading the echo chamber on the budget is enlightening:
“On this week’s podcast, Chad Aldis, Fordham’s vice president for Ohio policy, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the big ed reform victories this past legislative session on private school choice, charter schools, and accountability. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how parents use education savings accounts.”
They don’t even pretend to work for public schools. It’s like our schools and students don’t exist.
There’s an upside to the single-minded focus on ideological “market” goals though- it really leaves a huge opening that actual public school advocates and supporters could fill.
We could go in a different direction. It just takes the will to break with the echo chamber and come up with our own purpose and goals and direction for public schools. If our objective is serving public school students and none of this stuff gets us there, we can reject it. Our mission isn’t creating privatized systems to replace public schools- it’s serving public school students. We could go back to that and we don’t require permission.
2-16-2021
“Nominate a parent or community leader who would be a great advocate for our schools…a Legislative Action Leader…. With the support of the Office of Catholic Schools, the Legislative Action Leaders will help organize and lead advocacy in local school communities.”
“Legislator Spotlight….Sen. Andrew Brenner has shown an interest in private education and educational choice…He has supported religious freedom legislation…” (in other words laws that take away the freedom of others).
“A good Catholic meddles in politics…” (of course, if it generates tax dollars for the religious sect)
Posted at the Our Catholic Schools . Diocese of Columbus site.
Just look at the record in Ohio this past legislative session- ed reformers didn’t deliver public school funding. They worked exclusively on expanding vouchers and charters. They pushed the Senate funding plan which offered nothing for public schools.
Public schools benefited in Ohio this session not thru the efforts of ed reformers but in spite of their efforts.
Public schools owe these folks nothing. They don’t contribute anything to our schools. Now that we have a new funding formula and the additional Biden Administration funding we can go our own way. We’ll still have to comply with the testing mandates and the gimmicky “ratings” and of course we’ll be subject to the ridiculous new laws banning “CRT” but we can accept or reject all the rest, and we do that solely based on whether ANY of it benefits our students.
Ed reform can focus on the schools they promote- private schools and charter schools and we can focus on public schools. They wanted a market system. Now they have one. We’ll have the privatized systems and the public systems. The public systems can go in a different direction.
The budget includes a 3% income tax cut.
Dolan adds, according to Gongwer, “I think we want to be competitive. Only Indiana now is lower than us in our surrounding states… It is a matter of giving money back to individuals. It is also a matter of making our state attractive for development.”
Ohio is giving scraps to its children in public schools, cutting taxes in a race to the bottom. Scraps are only better than cuts. Scrapes are also better than cuts, but they still hurt. Republicans have created a competition and the winner is the loser. It is a matter of giving money away to wealthy individuals. It is also a matter of making the state attractive to snakes and vultures. It is a matter of shortsighted self-destruction.
The single man most responsible is Charles Koch. He also deserves blame for this century’s racial divide that weakens the U.S. The Trump election proved that Koch has support among almost half of Americans for what is a seismic shift in culture- an America that ceases to care about improving for the future. It is the worst legacy of the minions of Koch.
And, Koch destroyed the planet with his funding for climate change denial.
I wrote something about winners and losers, and of course, moderation AI “thought” I was calling someone a loser.
Ohio’s debate over school funding may take a timeout over the next year or two, but it will be back on the front burner in the next budget cycle.