Big wins for pro-public education candidates should give state lawmakers marching orders

[November 3, 2021] Ohio’s voters have spoken, and the winners are Ohio’s local public schools and the state’s children. An overwhelming majority of pro-public education candidates won school board seats across the state. Voters soundly rejected the divisive rhetoric of the radical candidates who had been serving a national network of extremists. What Ohioans made clear on Election Night was that attacking public education is really bad politics.

“Certain politicians tried to hijack this election season and turn community members against schools and teachers to keep us from coming together to demand that every school get the resources needed to provide every child with a quality education, but Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected that scheme,” Ohio Education Association (OEA) President Scott DiMauro said. “Ohio’s lawmakers have received clear marching orders from the people to support public education by fully implementing the Fair School Funding Plan, blocking the so-called Backpack Bill that would weaken Ohio’s public schools, and championing honesty in education to keep Big Government out of Ohio’s classrooms and ensure the anti-freedom House Bills 327 & 322 never pass.”

Statewide, pro-public education candidates, including a large number of educators, came out on top in their respective school board races, winning more than 80 percent of the contests in Ohio that OEA tracked. “That is a monumental success rate,” DiMauro said. “To put that in perspective, renewal levies – which are essentially the only slam dunk issues on Ohio’s ballots – pass at about that same rate.”

From Columbus to Kings to Centerville, Worthington, Copley-Fairlawn, and Sycamore, among others, whole slates of pro-public education candidates won seats. Slates of anti-honesty in education candidates failed to gain control of school boards across the state, regardless of the makeup of the districts or region.

“Ohio’s voters saw right through all the nonsense and manufactured controversy around masks, vaccines, and curriculum this election season, and Ohio’s lawmakers should take notice: Attacking local public schools is fast becoming the third-rail of Ohio politics,” DiMauro said. “Voters want Ohio policymakers to fulfill their constitutional obligations to provide great schools for all of Ohio’s children regardless of where they’re from or what they look like. The election results should serve as a cold bucket of water to those who are trying to pursue divisive political agendas that have nothing to do with educating kids.”