Stephen Dyer, former legislator and current public school advocate in Ohio, is outraged that legislators are considering a bill to punish public school districts that joined to oppose vouchers.
In his Substack blog called “Tenth Period,” Dyer rails against the legislators who want to defund public schools.
Dyer writes:
Ohio’s Public School Districts need to be pissed. Like REALLY pissed.
That’s because Jamie Callender — long a champion of failing Charter Schools — just introduced legislative blackmail.
House Bill 671 would withhold billions of dollars of state aid to the 330+ school districts that are suing the state over its unconstitutional private school tuition subsidies.
Nothing like holding the futures of hundreds of thousands of Ohio’s public school students hostage to score cheap political points.
Think of it this way: Callender would rather shut school down for hundreds of thousands of Ohio Public School students than argue for his pet program in court. Sounds like someone who thinks they’re about to lose. Bigly.
And why? So rich adults can have you, the taxpayer, subsidize their private school tuition?
That’s one helluva hill to die on, Jamie.
One helluva hill.
This bill is especially rich coming from Callender — a guy who stood up for ECOT and David Brennan for years while they ripped off taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars and failed their students.
Obviously, if this bill passes, it will be litigated. And Callender will lose.
What this bill truly reveals is this: Ohio Republican fear. They know their tuition subsidy program is a legal loser. They know people hate the fact that Les Wexner can get a private school tuition subsidy courtesy of Bob and Betty Buckeye. So their only hope is to cow school districts into dropping the suit.
But I know these people. And they won’t give up. In fact, this will drive more districts into the arms of Vouchers Hurt Ohio.
Because the only way to deal with legislative extortionists is to call their bluff.
Then beat the living shit out of them in court.
Then beat the living shit out of them in the court of public opinion.
Then beat the living shit out of them politically.
I have a simple message for the leaders of Ohio’s Public Education system: Are you going to let this extortionist hold your students’ futures hostage?
Our state’s 1.5 million public school students need you to fight. Not cave.
My friends, War has been declared.
Battle must be joined.
To arms.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ohio legislators revealed that instead of working for working families, they are working for big donors and naked capitalism. Their actions have nothing to do with “school choice.” Nor is it about the will of the people. It more about a polticized alignment with big money that wants to dismantle public education and make education a for profit entity. Voters should stop voting against their own self-interests.
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This is just another example of Republicans wanting to go corporate with public schools. Privatize public schools has been a big push for Republicans for years. Nothing new. We all know how things will end if schools are privatized. Only the students who do NOT have physical and/or mental problems learning, only students who have excellent grades in the current public schools, only students without discipline problems or run in with the law will get into the private schools. And, the wealthy who can already afford private schools will be the first in line to have their children accepted into these schools.
I must admit that the first thing to come to mind was where did JD Vance come from prior to becoming the VP for the United States. He mentality and ultra-conservative says it all about Ohio.
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