At a time when some consider public education under attack in Ohio, a group called Honesty for Ohio Education has stepped forward to advocate for public schools and push back on private school voucher funding.
The relatively young nonprofit, which calls itself nonpartisan, launched a campaign earlier this year at a press conference in Columbus, pushing for more transparency around the use of school vouchers in Ohio. It's working with two Ohio Senators, a Democrat and a Republican, to introduce Senate Bill 443, the "Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act." The bill would require more transparency from private schools receiving voucher funding.
While the bill hasn't had a hearing yet, Honesty for Ohio Education Executive Director Christina Collins said the group is taking an all-in approach amid a "crisis" in public education. It's launched a website called "Vouchers Aren't Free," alleging that the private-school scholarships are "theft from public education." It's calling on people to support a lawsuit filed by more than 300 schools challenging the constitutionality of vouchers. And the group has been sharing information via its website on how public school funding has been impacted by policy-makers decisions.
"We are seeing the impact of decades of under-resourcing public schools and over-regulating public schools," Collins said. "And so all of that I think is kind of coming to a head, and we do see kind of this crisis inflection moment happening when we have a third of the schools in our state projecting budget deficits in the next couple of years. That is not a sign of mismanagement or over-allocation. That is a sign of something real that is really happening to those schools."
Honesty for Ohio's advocacy campaign comes as dozens of schools across the state have moved to close buildings and lay off staff in 2025 and 2026.
Collins noted there are strong currents pushing against public schools. There are fewer students as birth rates have declined. Expenses continue to rise for goods and services. The state did not fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan in its last budget. And Gov. Mike DeWine signed several property-tax relief measures last year that are expected to hurt schools' local tax revenue over the next three years.
Finally, there's the push to ban all property taxes in Ohio. Advocates with the Ax Ohio Tax movement did not get enough signatures to put it on the 2026 ballot, but they will try again for Nov. 2027.
Piet van Lier, the deputy director of Honesty for Ohio Education and co-founder, acknowledged the state does need broader reforms on how it funds schools and government to reduce taxpayers' burdens. But ending all property taxes is not the right answer, he said.
"I think it's a larger conversation that needs to happen around how do we make this system work for everyone and right now that's not what's happening," van Lier said. "What we're doing is making this system work for wealthier people."
Honesty for Ohio Education was formed in 2021 as a coalition of public education advocates. It gained nonprofit status in 2024.
Its current board is made up of a mix of people in the policy advocacy and education space in Ohio. It includes the presidents of the two biggest teachers unions in Ohio, Jeff Wensing with the Ohio Education Association and Melissa Cropper with the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
The group's annual tax return doesn't disclose who its funders are (nonprofits are not required to in Ohio). When asked, Van Lier said the group's support comes from individual donations and Ohio-based foundations, like The Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.
Executive director Christina Collins is a former State Board of Education member. She also ran unsuccessfully in 2022 as a Democrat for the seat in Ohio House District 66. But she said that Honesty for Ohio Education is committed to its nonpartisan stance.
"There is a real understanding that in order to get anything done, we have to work strategically with people who we may not always agree with," she said.
Honesty for Ohio Education will also not retreat on some core issues, Collins said, like the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools, despite the politicization of those issues in recent years.
"Diversity is important in our schools and our students come from diverse backgrounds. Equity is making sure every kid gets what they need to be able to be successful in school. And inclusion means every child should feel welcome and supported in their school environment. And That to me is a nonpartisan message," she said.
What's next?
Collins said Honesty for Ohio Education's hope is for Ohio Senate Bill 443 to have hearings during the lame duck session later this year. She said they "fully expect" to have to reintroduce the bill in 2027, however.
The group will also be very active in advocating for more public school funding as the state legislature develops the next biennial budget, she said.
Meanwhile, education efforts on how Ohio's school funding system works are a "never-ending" effort, Collins added. Van Lier said the state has long underfunded schools. He said the state's share of how much school funding it provides, versus local property owners, has dropped from 47% to 32% since 2019. Van Lier argued state leaders have prioritized tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy to the detriment of public schools.
"(There are) all these different things that the state could and should be funding and it has purposely decided, 'yeah, we don't need that money. We're going to give it to corporations. We're gonna give it the wealthier people, and we're not going to worry about it,'" he said.
