PRESS CONFERENCE ON UNIVERSAL VOUCHER BILL: 11:00 A.M., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6
We have been warning the public school community and other Ohioans that the goal of voucher advocates has nothing to do with “rescuing poor kids from low performing school districts”; it is to give each kid a voucher. Fund the kid, not the system. Tune into the press conference to hear a universal voucher pitch first hand.
COLUMBUS – State Reps. Marilyn John (R-Richland County) and Riordan McClain (R-Upper Sandusky) will host a press conference on Wednesday, October 6th to announce new legislation known as the Backpack Bill. House Bill 290 will extend school choice to all students throughout Ohio, which will expand their educational opportunities.
During the press conference, the representatives will announce a sub-bill to HB 290. This very important legislation strives to ensure that Ohio maintains strong funding for public and private schools while also cultivating innovation and opportunity for all of Ohio’s children.
WHO: State Rep. Marilyn JohnState Rep. Riordan McClain
WHERE: Ohio Statehouse, Netzley Press Room,1 Capitol Square, Columbus, OH 43215
WHEN: Wednesday, October 6, 2021, at 11:00 a.m.
The No Child Left Behind Act Has Put The Nation At Risk
Vouchers Hurt Ohio
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 |ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://ohiocoalition.orgSign up for our newsletter!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The is overwhelmingly apparent that the majority of the elected representatives in the GOP are no longer supporting the US Constitution and are deliberately doing all they can to replace our republic and democracy with an autocratic kleptocracy ruled through fear with someone like Traitor Trump and/or governors like DeSantis and Abbott.
Here’s the site promoting the bill:
“Ohio’s education system is failing to meet the diverse needs of our children. Not only are many public schools underperforming and under educating our children, but in rural, suburban, and urban school districts, radically sexualized and politicized curriculum is being taught in the classroom.
Most of the children in these schools have no options, so the school district is nonresponsive to the concerns of parents.
The Backpack Bill takes away the monopoly from public schools and offers families a choice for the education that will best meet the needs of their children. This will also force the public schools to be more responsive to the needs and concerns of the parents and community.”
This is all fairly standard language within ed reform as the whole ed reform echo chamber have moved more and more towards vouchers and away from public schools. None of the main players and lobbyists in ed reform should disagree with any of it- it’s what they all push.
Remember 20 years ago in Ohio when this “movement” sold ed reform as “improving public schools” and the public believed it? Twenty years later they haven’t delivered anything for public school students and the entire state education policy revolves around vouchers.
https://backpackbill.com/about/
What a load of propaganda against public education!
Have any group of people been proved more correct than the public school supporters who said ed reform was about privatization have been proved right?
All the years of denials from ed reformers and every single year they have moved closer and closer to complete privatization. They are now at the point where they do absolutely nothing for public schools other than lobby against them. Why are public schools still taking direction from them and hiring them as consultants? How is it fair to public school students to have anti-public school activists and lobbyists in charge of public schools? Would charter and private schools accept this? Why are our students stuck with it?
I think people who live in Ohio could still turn this around if they start asking lawmakers what they have accomplished for public schools.
The response from ed reformers will be a recitation of the ed reform slogans- failing public schools, miraculous charter schools, vouchers, monopolies, anti-labor union politicking, how they all oppose “critical race theory”- what they won’t be able to point to is anything productive or positive they have accomplished for public schools.
They don’t deliver anything for public schools or public school students. They really perform no work of any kind that is even relevant to public school students other than testing and ranking them. We don’t need the “ed reform movement” to test and rank our students- if we want to test and rank public school students there are an absolute bevy of contractors to fill that role. So why elect them or hire them as consutants? If the goal is to “improve public schools” we probably have to start hiring people who will perform some work for public schools- the ed reform “movement” doesn’t do any.
Starting to happen in western NC also. Asheville City in particular. All the things I read about in Reign of Error ten years ago are coming to pass.
so overwhelming that great books/articles have been written and IGNORED
Go figure, brand loyalty or brand refreshing, larded
with contradictions, doesn’t seem to work.
It’s a “rule of law” system, I tell Ya, the constitution
sez so. Matter of act, “they” all swear to uphold it.
Besides, it’s a government of/by/and for the people.
Otay, On March 24, 1997, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled in a 4–3 decision that the state funding system “fails to provide for a thorough and efficient system of common schools,” as required by the Ohio Constitution, the state’s method for funding public education IS unconstitutional.
Now, splain to me how you “uphold” the constitution
by doing an unconstitutional act.
Splain to me how sort and separate testing, is a
“thorough and efficient system of common schools.”
Easy, it’s the short-sighted voters. They keep on
voten for their masters and expect to be free.
Now wait a hold it, I didn’t vote for testing. I
didn’t vote the appointed masters into office. I
didn’t vote on how the money is spent.
Didn’t ya say it’s gov of/for and by the people?
Ya I did. Corporations are people, the supreme
Simon Sez court, sez so. The testing complex is
people, so is the so-called ed reformers.
Well then, how about a voucher? Some “free” money
for ya.
But dem vouchers take away money from public schools
with fixed costs.
Don’t ya have any “fixed” costs yourself? You could
use the “free” money to “help” out.
Where do you get the “free” part? You tax me ’till
I’m dead, give me a voucher, and say it’s free.
Ya, that’s the way it works. There’s no better way
to enslave people then to tell them they are free,
and give ’em a vote…
Didn’t you help write NCLB?
Ken, I did not write NCLB. I did not “help” write it. I worked for Papa Bush in the early 1990s.
Cincinnati news stations reported this evening that a Christian group is behind the Ohio bill.