Ohio public schools are hurting. Ohio political leaders seem determined to hurt them more.

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima. (File Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)

Does Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman hate public schools?

He very well might not. I doubt that he would ever use those words. But as an observer, it just really comes off like Matt Huffman hates public schools. Or maybe he has some sort of grudge against them and thinks they should struggle and suffer more than they already are.

Maybe hate is too strong a word. Maybe he’s just callously indifferent to public schools. Or maybe it’s not hatred or indifference; it’s a kind of gristle-chewing contempt for public schools combined with a deep, warm, abiding love and affection for private, for-profit, and religious schools.

I really don’t know.

What I do know is that since Ohio’s system for funding public education was declared unconstitutional more than 25 years ago, Ohioans have only seen two brief periods of time when anything resembling a constitutional school funding formula has been in place: the evidence-based model passed and signed under Gov. Ted Strickland in 2009 and then quickly overturned by Gov. John Kasich in 2011, and the bipartisan Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan that was put in place in 2021.

Now the future of Cupp-Patterson is in jeopardy as Huffman has declared it “unsustainable.”

Huffman, who starts the year as Ohio House Speaker after being term-limited out as Ohio Senate President, enjoys enormous influence in the Ohio Statehouse amid Republican supermajorities in both chambers.

The Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan included a phasing-in schedule over six years, or three budget cycles in Ohio. Now that the first two phases have been implemented, Huffman is signaling he’s ready to call the thing off.

“I don’t think there is a third phase to Cupp-Patterson,” Huffman told reporters Monday. “I guess the clear statement I can say is I think those increases in spending are unsustainable.”

Unsustainable. Fair School Funding in Ohio is “unsustainable.”

Meanwhile, this past school year, Ohio lawmakers funneled nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars toward private schools under near-universal voucher expansion after passing near-universal vouchers the year before. The vast majority of new private school voucher money from Ohio taxpayers went to families with their kids already in private schools.

In Ohio, 90% of students attend public schools, while only 10% attend private schools. But according to Huffman, shoveling nearly $1 billion per year to private schools to help families who were already using private schools is definitely, absolutely, no doubt sustainable, while funding Ohio’s Fair School Funding plan for 90% of students is not.

Even under Cupp-Patterson, school districts across Ohio are facing enormous difficulties.

Here are some headlines about Ohio school districts around the state from 2024:

• ‘Can’t survive’: Greater Cincinnati school district will have to make $1M in cuts (WKRC)

• Perrysburg schools considering cuts after levy failed in November (WTOL)

• Princeton City Schools announce hiring freeze, other cuts after tax levy failure (WCPO)

• Local school district to move forward with approved cuts after levy failure (WKRC)

• Ashtabula Area City Schools superintendent updates board on $1.7 million budget reduction plan (Star Beacon)

• Ravenna City Schools making cuts to busing, staffing, extra-curriculars as state places district in ‘fiscal caution’ (WKYC)

• Financial health of local school districts varies considerably, driving levy debates (Dayton Daily News)

• Akron Public Schools proposes cutting 285 positions to contend with budget deficit (Ideastream)

• Federal Hocking School District plans to reduce deficit through attrition (Athens County Independent)

• This school district is facing an $81 million deficit. It hopes voters will help. (WEWS)

• Cuts and budget reductions expected for Youngstown City School District due to projected deficit (WFMJ)

• Youngstown schools to cut 20 positions to deal with budget deficit (Ideastream)

• Cleveland Municipal School District plans to cut $168 million from budget over two years (Cleveland.com)

• Local school district forced to cut jobs due to budget deficit (WHIO)

• Tri-State school districts are making cuts, financial changes after levies failed in November’s election (WCPO)

• Mansfield City Schools faces $3.9 million deficit next school year (Richland Source)

• Reynoldsburg school levy fails, budget cuts likely (WCMH)

• Milford Schools approves over $5 million in budget cuts contingent on Election Day income tax levy failure (WLWT)

• Milford School District tax levy fails (WCPO)

I’m going to stop here because I could go on and on with these.

I read an abnormal amount of local news from all around Ohio, so I know this all is happening because I see these headlines all the time. I don’t expect most Ohioans to be aware that school districts everywhere across the state are facing such enormous trouble, but I do expect the Ohio House Speaker to know it, because, well, that’s his job.

What I can’t understand is this: If you know that public school districts across Ohio are facing awful budget hardship, teacher shortages, morale problems, busing problems and driver shortages, an extremely hostile public, a complete unwillingness in many communities to pass local levies, would you, as Ohio House Speaker, try to find ways to help schools give 90% of students the absolute best education possible? Or would you rip away more resources and make their problems worse?

I would try to help.

I hope most people would try to help.

But Matt Huffman is signaling he intends to cause them more pain. And that’s why I wonder, does he hate public schools? Or, does he not care about them? Or does just he love private, for-profit, and religious schools so much that it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the 90% of students in public schools?

I don’t know. But if state lawmakers cut even more from public schools, all these headlines will keep getting worse, and Ohio communities, schools, teachers, students and families will all suffer the consequences.