Taking candy from a baby
Suspected domestic terrorist Matt Huffman unveiled his master plan for what's believed to be the lowest level of public school funding in Ohio history on Tuesday.
I recently read (and gave away to a Patriots Caucus soldier in Cleveland) a book entitled Dying of Whiteness: How Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland.
It’s the kind of title that conservatives will instinctively roll their eyes at. The book visits Kansas, Tennessee and Missouri, but its thrust applies to Ohio.
It explores a question I think about a lot: Why do primarily rural, white voters support Republican politicians who push policies that make them poorer while worsening their schools, infrastructure, and life expectancy?
There’s a chapter in the book that discusses the Kansas education system, which you might not expect to have been one of the best in the country not that long ago.
But then Kansas elected a bunch of hardline Republicans, led by former governor Sam Brownback, who enacted massive austerity and tax cuts to the wealthy with easy-to-predict results for social inequality and public schools.
In 2023, Kansas re-elected Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, in large part because of her work repairing the damage done by Brownback and his ilk.
But the haunting lesson about that chapter in Dying of Whitness was that destroying a once-proud educational system is much easier than building one.
It doesn’t take long, either. It only took Kansas eight years.
And though Kansas learned its lesson about hardline Republicans, it still has a Republican-dominated legislature. But at least it’s on the right track.
We’re going the other way in Ohio.
Yesterday, Speaker Matt Huffman, who, in my opinion, is a domestic terrorist, spent his 65th birthday doing what he loves most: Starving public schools of much-needed funding.
Ohio’s constitution mandates funding a “thorough and efficient"public education system, which Huffman and his cronies have already looted to the tune of $1 billion for the school voucher scam, which is little more than a subsidy for affluent families already sending their children to private school.
Between 1997 and 2002, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a series of decisions in the infamous DeRolph vs. Ohio case, primarily ruling that the state's funding of its schools was unconstitutional.
At the time of that decision, the state paid 40 percent for the cost of education per student. The state responded to that ruling in 1999 by increasing that number to 45 percent and building schools throughout the state, two of which occurred in Marion County, where I’m from.
On Tuesday, House Republicans unveiled what can only be described as the most meager school funding plan in state history.
From Morgan Trau of news5cleveland.com:
To be fully funded based on statistics from the Fair School Funding Plan from 2021, schools would need $666 million. The proposed budget only gives them about $226 million.
Based on 2025 numbers and inflation, the amount of money to fund K-12 would be closer to $800 million, new data from public school advocates like former lawmaker John Patterson explained.
To put these numbers into context, here are the percentages of costs that the state has covered that show Ohio plans to shortchange funding below the 40 percent threshold that triggered the infamous DeRolph case:
2022: 41.6 percent
2023: 40.6 percent
2024: 43.3 percent
2025: 38.4 percent
2026: 36 or 37 percent*
2027: 33 or 34 percent*
* = Current estimates, with exact numbers being learned later today.
We can only hope this adds fuel to the 140ish school districts currently suing Ohio over its broken funding system. That lawsuit is expected to kick off later this year.
After the House Finance Committee adjourned yesterday, I spoke with Chairman Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) and State Reps. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville), Jamie “Gigachad” Callender (R-Concord Twp.), and Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) about school funding:
Manning and Bird are former educators. I was not shocked to see Bird toeing the Republican line that, despite what the numbers actually say, this is somehow a funding increase for schools.
I was surprised, albeit not shocked, to hear Speaker Pro Tempore Manning toe the company line. And it shows you how deep down the rabbit hole we have gone.
I do think her line about how she’d give $1.5 billion to public schools “if we had it” is a bit disingenuous, considering we gave 75 percent of that amount to the voucher scam and that State Legislature could—gasp—raise the money almost overnight by properly taxing corporations and ultrawealthy people.
We could have that money if the Legislature wanted it.
But that’s not the Republican mindset, which is why we’re having to nickel and dime our public schools so we can keep striving toward eliminating the state income tax, which would be another massive giveaway to the rich.
The Ohio House budget also contained a bunch of poisonous easter eggs ranging from tax breaks for donations to anti-abortion pregnancy centers to trying to grease the tracks to resume the state-sanctioned murder of ostensible criminals.
Courtesy of Danielle Firsch, the Director of Policy for Planned Parenthood Ohio:
Prohibits the Department of Medicaid from paying for DEI
Says only two sexes recognized in Ohio: "These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."
Requires public libraries to place material related to sexual orientation or gender identity/expression in a portion of the public library that is not primarily open to the view of persons under the age of 18.
Requires the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to make every effort to acquire lethal injection drugs.
Removes the exception allowing Ohio Department of Health Genetic Services funds to be used to counsel or refer for abortion in the case of a medical emergency.
Limits Medicaid coverage of doula services to the six counties with the highest infant mortality rates.
Creates a personal income deduction of up to $750 per year for contributions made to anti-abortion pregnancy centers.
Mandates that no earmarked funds for youth homelessness can be used for gender-affirming care or can go to shelters that affirm social transition.
Decreases Help Me Grow funding by $22.5 million
Eliminates the mental health support line item from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
Allows Christian religious organizations like Lifewise to have a required weekly hour for religious release instruction.
A friend recently asked me how I maintain my last few shreds of sanity by covering the Ohio Statehouse, given my politics.
For one, it’s my job. I have bills to pay like everyone else.
But almost more importantly… I’m never going to let the Republican junta take my sense of humor or my willingness to fight for less marginalized people. The good lord blessed me with a particular set of skills, and I will use them to pester legislative hobgoblins until my dying breath.
Because this budget plan will be nothing short of a disaster for public schools.
Sure, wealthy districts like Upper Arlington or Bexley will always be somewhat insulated due to the unequal burden that Ohio places on property taxes.
But their districts will be forced to do more than less, like everyone else. And any drop in standardized test scores will be used by bad-faith legislators to further siphon money from public schools.
State Senator Andy Brenner (R-Powell), who would probably privatize schools tomorrow if he could unilaterally do so, commonly likes to say that we can’t solve problems by throwing money at them.
I think it depends on the problem! But it’s hard for me to think of any problem that can be solved by taking more and more money out of the problem-solving pot every year, as our legislature has done to public schools.
It sucks to say, but everyday people will have to get in the trenches to block this diabolical plot. Thanks to gerrymandering, many of these legislators can’t be beaten at the ballot box, barring a national calamity.
But statewide elections are about 18 months away. And as we saw last night in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the Republican Party is a different beast without Donald Trump at the top of the ticket.
Politicians stealing from public schools is something any fool off the street can understand. Despite the boom in private and charter schools in Ohio, approximately 85 percent of students still attend public schools.
As such, I’d like to put something on your radar on May Day when the Columbus Education Association plans to host a protest at the Statehouse:
State law requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget by June 30th. We still have time to fight this injustice. And fight we must.
THOSE WMDs. HBO to release documentary on Ohio State’s Dr. Richard Strauss scandal later this year… We are sleepwalking into autocracy… The conspiracy-peddling gossip blogger who’s cast herself as an RFK-Trump player… A Marine's decision to eject from a failing F-35B fighter jet and the betrayal in its wake… The Canadian roots of Elon Musk’s conspiracist grandpa.
Ohio, where ignorance is our most important product.
Children suffer if this budget becomes law