New data, same old story: Vouchers hurt Ohio’s kids, taxpayers
KnowYourCharter.com was recently updated to include information specifically on the EdChoice Performance Based Vouchers (the only program that tracks voucher recipient test performance). Included in the new data is how much more reliant on local property taxes districts become due to the state diverting funding from public school children to these privately run schools. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled four different times that the state had to reduce property tax reliance. These voucher and charter school programs clearly have done the opposite.
Even more troubling is the new data indicates EdChoice is fueling so-called “White Flight” from Black and brown communities. Students taking vouchers are nearly twice as likely to be White as students in the districts where 95% of the money comes from that are subsidizing those students’ private school tuitions.
“The Ohio Education Association has long fought to shine the spotlight on how these vouchers are draining resources from the approximately 90 percent of Ohio students who attend public schools. The new Know Your Charter data clearly demonstrates what we’ve known all along,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said, expressing special concern for the “White Flight” problem EdChoice is fueling: “these same communities, which have already been failed by years of inequities under the state’s unconstitutional school funding system, are forced to go to the ballot more often for larger levy increases, even though only part of that money actually goes to their kids. It smacks of state-sanctioned segregation.”
This new data allows Ohioans to find out exactly how many students are “leaving” their district with these vouchers and exactly which private schools are receiving taxpayer funded tuition subsidies at the expense of their better-performing public school counterparts. In fact, the Cincinnati Enquirer revealed last year that nearly 90% of all voucher students do worse on state tests than students who attend public schools in the same communities. Despite this, Ohio lawmakers voted late last year to expand eligibility for the EdChoice voucher program and continue its explosive, decade-long growth.
Because there is not currently any direct funding system for the EdChoice performance-based voucher program, public districts must dig into their budgets to pay for the private school tuition of students. In some districts, EdChoice deducts more money per student than is actually provided by the state, so it forces the community to use local funding to offset those losses, creating real consequences like larger class sizes and reduced opportunities for public school students. And even in communities where the deduction is less than what students in the district receive, it forces those communities to rely more on local property taxes to pay for schools.
“To add insult to injury, a large portion of the students who receive EdChoice vouchers have never set foot in the public school that’s losing money to send them to a poorly-performing private institution. In fact, that’s the case for so many recipients, the Ohio Department of Education can’t even provide an overall demographic breakdown for voucher kids, because they’ve never had them in their tracking system,” DiMauro said. “It’s frankly a disgrace and Ohio’s public school children deserve so much better than this broken scheme. OEA is grateful that the Know Your Charter site is able to demonstrate the harm so plainly now.”
The Know Your Charter website still has information about charter school performance and funding, as well as the new voucher information.
DEADLINE EXTENSION: Students, educators can now enter Ohio Education Association’s redistricting contest through June 1, 2021
“These district maps play a fundamental role in the strength of our democracy, but for too long, gerrymandered districts have allowed politicians to choose their voters, not the other way around,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Thanks to reforms approved by voters like requirements to keep 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties whole and only let five counties be split more than twice, the redistricting commission is being held to new standards to ensure districts are politically competitive and elected leaders must represent the interests of all of their constituents, not just their favored few. Ohio’s students and educators have a chance to show them how that’s done.”
The Design Ohio’s Future contest is open to all Ohio middle and high school students as well as all OEA members. Entrants can design their maps using the free community webtool at https://districtr.org/, click the ‘share’ button, and submit their map’s URL on the OEA website at https://www.ohea.org/design-ohios-future-contest/ Full contest rules are on the submission page. All entries are due no later than June 1, 2021.
Winners will be selected for creating Ohio House, Ohio Senate, and Congressional District maps in the following categories: Most Politically Competitive, Fewest Community Splits, and Most Creative. All map entries must include districts that have roughly the same population size and are contiguous, and all entries except those in the Most Creative categories must adhere to redistricting requirements Ohioans voted for. The full requirements and a tutorial video can be found on the Design Ohio’s Future page of the OEA website.
A middle school student, high school student, and OEA member winner will be chosen in each of the nine categories. The winners will receive a special commemorative plaque and have their maps featured in the Ohio Schools magazine and on the OEA and All in for Equal Districts websites. The maps will also be shared with the state officials responsible for redrawing Ohio’s maps.
“What happens in our classrooms depends so much on what happens in our Capitol buildings,” DiMauro said. “Our current system is broken, and if we’re going to fix this mess, we need non-partisan, independent redistricting that ends map manipulation. We’re asking Ohio’s students and educators to lead the way.”
Ohio Education Association and Ohio Federation of Teachers Oppose Legislative Attack on Trans Students
“These bills — HB 61 and SB 132 — are not just a sports ban, this is part of a coordinated national attack on the safety and lives of trans students. As educators, we are speaking up because we know that our students don’t thrive when they’re not safe and healthy, and because every student deserves respect and equal opportunity.
HB 61 and SB 132 are a bad solution in desperate search of a problem. The Ohio High School Athletic Association has already implemented a detailed policy that ensures that trans students have equal opportunity while maintaining fair competition in women’s sports. Efforts to throw this policy out in favor of widespread discrimination of trans athletes are just mean-spirited attempts by some politicians to wage a culture war in our schools rather than addressing the real problems that Ohioans face. While these bills won’t address any needs in our schools or any real issues with school sports, they will send a harmful message to trans students that they are not welcome and that it is not safe for them to be themselves in our schools.
Multiple studies have shown that trans youth attempt suicide at much higher rates than their peers. The existence of these bills and the vitriol that they spark are exacerbating factors that will put our students at greater risk. Over the past year, we stood up for commonsense COVID precautions in our schools because part of our job is keeping our students safe and that’s also why we are strongly opposed to HB 61 and SB 132.”
April/May 2021 Ohio Schools
- COVER STORY: Creative Thinking – Educators helped lead fellow educators in finding the best ways to keep students safe and support their learning
- EXTRA CREDIT
- OEA Launches Education Matters Podcast
- OEA Education Foundation Seeking Grant Applications
- MAKING THE GRADE
- OEA Honors Classroom Heroes in Partnership with 10TV and 97.1 The Fan
- Save-the-Date OEA 2021 Summer Leadership Academy
Moved recently? Contact the OEA Member Hotline to update the address on file at 1-844-OEA-Info (1-844-632-4636) or email, membership@ohea.org. Representatives are available Monday-Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. | OhioSchools — Past Issues
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Ohio Education Association launches redistricting contest for students, educators
“These district maps play a fundamental role in the strength of our democracy, but for too long, gerrymandered districts have allowed politicians to choose their voters, not the other way around,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Thanks to reforms approved by voters like requirements to keep 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties whole and only let five counties be split more than twice, the redistricting commission is being held to new standards to ensure districts are politically competitive and elected leaders must represent the interests of all of their constituents, not just their favored few. Ohio’s students and educators have a chance to show them how that’s done.”
The Design Ohio’s Future contest is open to all Ohio middle and high school students as well as all OEA members. Entrants can design their maps using the free community webtool at https://districtr.org/, click the ‘share’ button, and submit their map’s URL on the OEA website at https://www.ohea.org/design-ohios-future-contest/ Full contest rules are on the submission page. All entries are due no later than May 1, 2021.
Winners will be selected for creating Ohio House, Ohio Senate, and Congressional District maps in the following categories: Most Politically Competitive, Fewest Community Splits, and Most Creative. All map entries must include districts that have roughly the same population size and are contiguous, and all entries except those in the Most Creative categories must adhere to redistricting requirements Ohioans voted for. The full requirements and a tutorial video can be found on the Design Ohio’s Future page of the OEA website.
A middle school student, high school student, and OEA member winner will be chosen in each of the nine categories. The 27 winners will receive a special commemorative plaque and have their maps featured in the Ohio Schools magazine and on the OEA and All in for Equal Districts websites. The maps will also be shared with the state officials responsible for redrawing Ohio’s maps.
“What happens in our classrooms depends so much on what happens in our Capitol buildings,” DiMauro said. “Our current system is broken, and if we’re going to fix this mess, we need non-partisan, independent redistricting that ends map manipulation. We’re asking Ohio’s students and educators to lead the way.”
Doing Whatever It Takes: A Changed Perspective
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
Henry Darby, a principal in South Carolina, recently made headlines for working an overnight job at Walmart so he would have extra money to help the students in his community. Why? According to Darby, “You just…do what you need to do.”1
I think I’m supposed to have warm, gooey feelings when I hear about stories like his, so why did it depress me so much?
Maybe because this year, I have had little energy to do much beyond show up to work on time and put forth a solid effort during the day. I leave as soon as I am contractually allowed to leave, and outside of a few weekend afternoons grading at home, I’ve not spent time doing school work after 2:30 PM each weekday.
It didn’t used to be this way. Like Mr. Darby, I would do whatever it took to get the job done and done well, even if that meant grading or planning in my home office instead of spending time with family, or spending my own money on supplies for my students. Even when not in school, it was not unusual for my brain to be constantly whirring with thoughts of lesson plans or students or activities or curriculum pacing or technology or state tests or any of the countless number of aspects to a teacher’s job.
But this year, I’ve started to wonder if I have the energy to make it to retirement in a teaching career. National news stories heralding extraordinary educators like Mr. Darby only make me question myself even more. A few times, I’ve caught myself wondering if it’s time to consider getting out.
I’ve come to realize, though, that in spite of the stress of teaching through COVID, I still have what’s most essential to being a good teacher: I still care about the kids.
Of course I get frustrated with my high school students at times. But the fact remains, I want them to become flourishing adults who contribute meaningfully to their communities. I want them to be able to think and read critically, to fight with passion for their beliefs and to listen with compassion to those who hold opposing points of view. I want them to recognize the importance of finding the balance between living every day as if it’s their last and as if they will live forever. I want them to learn to approach each day with intention, putting forth an effort they can be proud of, even if the day consists of the mundane routine of going to school and home again.
Those desires fuel every lesson I plan, even this year, when literally surviving is my main goal.
When the pandemic hit almost a year ago and we had to start teaching from home, I learned very quickly that I was going to have to work to keep my anxiety at bay. I exercised daily. I read for enjoyment. I did yoga. My family and I worked puzzles. I watched the news only once per day and limited my time on social media.
When school started this fall, my district decided to go back face-to-face, five days a week. I’ve had to keep up the practices I started last spring in order to take care of my mental well-being. Consequently, I’ve had no extra time to put into my job, and frankly, the stress of being in school saps my energy for even thinking about school when I’m not there.
One of the newscasters telling Mr. Darby’s story wondered when he had time to sleep. It’s a good question; what he is doing is most likely not sustainable for a long period of time, no matter the depths of his love for his students. We need to realize that teaching is an exhausting job whether we are experiencing a pandemic or not, and whatever we do to get the job done needs to be something we can continue to do for the long haul.
I am not questioning Mr. Darby for working that second job, nor am I criticizing teachers who grade papers on the weekends or stay late after school or provide supplies for their students. We need people like that. But maybe we need to take turns being people like that. And we need to recognize that it’s okay not to be people like that.
Maybe we need to question why teachers feel pressured to sacrifice whole chunks of their lives to their job outside of regular work hours.
Maybe we need to question why teachers who take care of their own mental health aren’t as highly glorified in the media as teachers who run themselves ragged trying to make up for the shortcomings of our society. Where are the stories about teachers who figure out how to leave school at school, who work like dogs during the day so they can come home at night and hit the mat for some downward dogs?
Maybe we need to question why, in 2021, in any state in this country, funding for public schools is so egregiously inadequate that a principal would even consider getting a second job to make more money to provide for his students. We certainly need to question why here in Ohio, our legislators just can’t ever quite get around to fixing our state’s unconstitutional school funding system. What are our legislators prioritizing over our kids? And why?
Society has always faced more questions than answers when it comes to dealing with public education, but this year, the question that has haunted me is whether or not it’s time to leave education. To answer that question, I had to ask another: do I want to continue to be an educator? The answer is a resounding yes, so I must do whatever it takes to allow myself to keep showing up for those teenagers who I still care about so much.
COVID has changed the way every American is able to perform their job, whether that job is in a hospital or a grocery store or an office or a classroom. We are all facing situations for which we have not been trained or adequately prepared. Teachers certainly aren’t the only ones dealing with higher levels of stress than usual. But society has always asked teachers to live up to extraordinary expectations, and we aren’t all Louanne Johnson or Erin Gruwell; being a good teacher, even an exceptional teacher, doesn’t always mean accomplishing feats that are big-screen worthy.
For many years of my career, “you do what you gotta do,” meant doing whatever it took to get my job done. Now, it means doing whatever I have to do to take care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally, and not letting my job or the stress that comes with it overtake the rest of my life.
During a pandemic or during a “normal” year, if you’re doing your job as well as you can within school hours and then letting it go, it’s okay. We can’t possibly hope to produce flourishing students if we aren’t even attempting to flourish ourselves. Sometimes you don’t do what you gotta do to get the job done; you do what you gotta do so that you can keep doing the job.
— Julie Holderbaum is an English Instructor and an Academic Challenge Advisor at Minerva High School, Minerva, Ohio.
[1]High school principal works overnight at Walmart to … – Yahoo News.” 29 Jan. 2021, https://news.yahoo.com/high-school-principal-works-overnight-153343899.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021
OEA-R Read Across America
The OEA-Retired sponsors Read Across America every year to get kids excited about reading. To celebrate Read Across America, OEA-R has an archive of retired members, active members, and authors reading books. Members and students have the ability to access the library. Enjoy the archive of readers over the years!
Click on each book title to watch a video of the book reading by an OEA member.
Chocolate Milk Por Favor by Maria Dismondy
Grace Goes to Washington by Kelly DiPucchio
It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton
A Different Pond by Bao Phi
The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
Same, Same But Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
The Skin You Live In by Michael Taylor
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin
The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines
She Persisted in Sports by Chelsea Clinton
So Far From the Sea by Eve Bunting
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
Happy In Our Skin by Fran Maniskin
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
All Because You Matter by Tami Charles
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Supreme Court Justice by Meg Gaertner
I Can’t Read, Oh! What Shall I Do by Steven Mitchell
I am Perfectly Designed by Karamo Brown
A World Together by Sonia Monzano
Emmanuel’s Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson
I Believe I Can by Grace Byers
Book Fiesta by Pat Mora
Change Sings by Amanda Gorman
A New Kind of Wild by Zara Gonzalez Hoang
Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams
Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom Deluise
Parker Looks Up by Parker Curry and Jessica Curry
The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates
The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow
Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo by John Lithgow
Skin Like Mine by Latashia M Perry
Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty
What Makes Us Unique by Jillian Roberts
Fiona Love at the Zoo by Richard Cowdrey
Little Tree by Loren Long
OTIS by Loren Long
The Brown Crayon by Michael G. Williams
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
The Cloud Factory by Paul Stutzman
I am Enough by Grace Byers
Sammy the Sea Star by Elaine Reynolds and Cindy Jarrett
Daddy Loves Me by Izzy Down
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
The Kindness Machine by Christina Dankert
Nana Bee and Me by Jocelyn Dabney
House Mouse, Senate Mouse by Peter Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes
Gracie’s Grace by S.R.D. Harris
Kaydee the Bumblebee by Gabrielle Hill
Aliyah’s Missing Teddy Bear by Seneca Bing
Alliteration Boosts Communication by Larry Carey
Jenny Mei is Sad by Tracy Subisak
Girl You are Magic by Ashley Ferguson
Boy You Are Brilliant by Ashley Ferguson
Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler
The Great Cloud Rescue by Paul Stutzman
Only Ants for Andy by Jasher Awan
Buddy’s New Buddy by Christina Geist
There Once was a Buckeye Who Lived in the Shoe by Stephanie Duwve
Jabari Jabari, What I Love About Me by Amber Hill
Jacobi Jacobi, What Can I Be by Amber Hill
Diary of a Drifter by Steven Roof
The Journey of Ama Ketewa by Afia Chrarrah
Anatasia Meets Jackie Robinson by Marina Rae Cheney
We Can Vote by Ann Bonwill
What Can a Citizen Do by David Eggers
Not Done Yet by Tameka Fryer Brown
Citizen Baby by Megan Bryant
Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio
The Night Before Election Day by Natasha Wing
One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote by Bonnie Worth
If I Ran for President by Catherine Stier
A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara / A is for Awesome by Eva Chen
Rosa Parks – An Itty Bitty Biography
Choosing Brave by Angela Joy
Adventures of Democracy Land by Monica Ramirez
Americana Adventure by Michael Garland
If You’re Going to a March by Marsha Freeman
The Youngest Marcher by Cynthia Levinson
Vote For Our Future by Margaret McNamara
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
I Can Save the Earth by Alison Inches
Dear Earth by Isabel Otter
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Earthsong by Sally Rogers
Emperor of the Ice by Nicola Davies
Updated March 11, 2025
February/ March 2021 Ohio Schools
- COVER STORY: School Counseling in the Time of COVID-19 – School counselors are social and emotional educators, academic advisers, conflict mediators, wellness coaches, mental health therapists, student champions, educational collaborators, and family liaisons.
- EXTRA CREDIT
- OEA Launches Education Matters Podcast
- OEA Education Foundation Seeking Grant Applications
- POLITICAL ACTION
- Remembering Our Historic Victory Over Senate Bill 5
Moved recently? Contact the OEA Member Hotline to update the address on file at 1-844-OEA-Info (1-844-632-4636) or email, membership@ohea.org. Representatives are available Monday-Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. | OhioSchools — Past Issues
Oh Yes, We’re Social — Join the Conversation!
OEA welcomes CDC’s school reopening guidance, calls for federal support
“The CDC guidance generally reflects what OEA has been saying since last summer about the conditions under which in-person instruction can be achieved safely. The level of community spread is the key factor in deciding the education model for students to continue receiving a high-quality education, in-person or online, and the science-based CDC guidelines recognize the absolutely necessity of mitigation measures like masks, social distancing, and sanitization procedures. Emphasizing the importance of COVID testing further strengthens these safety norms,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said.
The CDC’s guidance also calls for prioritizing school instruction over extracurricular activities and sports, echoing OEA’s Putting Education First policy which asked Ohioans to avoid non-essential activities to limit community spread of the virus to enable school buildings to remain open for in-person instruction. The full Putting Education First policy can be downloaded here.
“OEA is pleased to see leadership from the CDC on this issue and to see the importance of equity in the federal policies to direct resources to communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, including many communities of color or those with high-poverty, where actions like updating ancient ventilation systems in schools or addressing the digital divide have thus far felt out of reach,” DiMauro said. “It is now up to U.S. lawmakers to follow through on these promises and pass President Biden’s COVID relief package, which will include over $130 billion in targeted support for PreK-12 schools, about $4 billion of which would go to Ohio.”
“It is simply not possible to follow the CDC’s rules without the resources to do so,” DiMauro explained. “More than 60 percent of Ohio’s teachers are already teaching in person – some are doing so at risk to themselves. But they shouldn’t have to. Our members want more than anything to be in their classrooms with their students when it is safe, and we are all counting on Congress to deliver what we know is needed to make schools safe now.”
OEA applauds resolution on use of state testing data, but urges further action
“Teaching never stops; learning never stops. However, we must be mindful of the fact that the pandemic has, as Dr. Collins put it, ‘affected every student in Ohio, disrupting the structure of teaching and learning’ this year,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Dr. Collins’ calls to lower the stakes for state testing and ensure the results are appropriately labeled to reflect the circumstances under which testing is occurring this year are an important step in safeguarding our students, educators, and communities from unfair punishments as a result of this spring’s tests.”
Even so, OEA maintains a much more important measure would be to suspend standardized testing altogether, especially since they must be administered in person, even to students who have been learning remotely all year. Therefore, OEA urges lawmakers to quickly approve House Bill 67, bi-partisan legislation that would waive state testing requirements for the 2020-2021 school year and require the Department of Education to seek a waiver from federal testing requirements.
“While we certainly would prefer that tests not be given this year, given the yawning disparities in educational delivery the pandemic has created between districts, we deeply appreciate Dr. Collins’ efforts to minimize the harm these tests will thrust upon our students and fully support her resolution,” DiMauro said.