In an extraordinary development in Ohio. ProPublica flagged a new policy that requires Ohio taxpayers to help private, religious schools to build new buildings. Jan Resseger looks at the news. Reposted with permission.
This week, ProPublica‘s Eli Hager brought to Ohioans’ attention a piece of new state policy that was covered in the Lima Daily News in late June, but largely missed:
“The state of Ohio is giving taxpayer money to private, religious schools to help them build new buildings and expand their campuses, which is nearly unprecedented in modern U.S. history… Under a bill passed by its legislature this summer, the state is now providing millions of dollars in grants directly to religious schools, most of them Catholic, to renovate buildings, build classrooms, improve playgrounds and more.”
Hager reminds readers that the legislature’s new move to fund the construction of religious schools seems to violate the language of the Article VI, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution: “The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state; but no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.”
The Ohio Legislature’s investment in private school construction dollars is a relatively small, one time grant, which is part of this year’s capital budget. The Lima News‘ Mackenzi Klemann explained in June: “Lawmakers will award nearly $4 million in grants to private schools from the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund, as well as another $4 million for community school (Ohio’s word for charter schools), vocational school and traditional public school projects throughout the state….” “The grant comes from the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund, a $717 million grant fund included in Ohio’s $3.5 billion capital budget to support community projects.”
Hager calls Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, who led the Legislature in passing the vast, universal voucher expansion as part of the biennial state budget in June of 2023, the architect as well of the new private school construction grants. He quotes Huffman: “The capacity issue is the next big issue on the horizon for voucher efforts.”
Huffman’s years long efforts to expand vouchers have also been supported by a number of far-right lobbyists in Columbus. In his report this week, Hager quotes Troy McIntosh, the influential lobbyist and director of the Ohio Christian Education Network, who declared: “We want to make sure that from our perspective Christian school options are available to any kid who chooses that in the state.” When the Lima News’s Klemann reported this budgetary story in late June, she noted that McIntosh’s Ohio Christian Network “is working with 17 churches across the state to start private schools in so-called choice deserts, primarily rural and urban areas where few Christian schools exist, by leveraging existing buildings like churches to start new schools for about $100.000.”
The idea for the new grants to support the construction of religious schools using public tax dollars did not, however, originate with McIntosh and his Ohio Christian Education Network. Back in January, Greg R. Lawson, the lobbyist for the Buckeye Institute, Ohio’s most powerful far-right think tank, released a proposal: “A Transformational Investment: Use Ohio’s Capital Budget to Increase Classroom Space”:
“(C)lassroom capacity is now a legitimate and growing concern given the high demand for EdChoice scholarships, especially in economically disadvantaged and rural portions of the state. To add student capacity, private and charter schools need to access capital much like traditional public schools can access more than $11 billion in state funds through the Classroom Facilities Assistance Program. But the One-Time Strategic Community Investments Fund cannot pay for ongoing expenses, so an appropriation should establish a revolving loan fund that may also legally accept private capital to augment money available to public charter schools and private schools accepting EdChoice scholarships. Creating a loan fund would allow these various education providers to apply for low-or no-interest loans for construction and other capital expenses that would help them serve more students.”
While the Legislature jumped at the Buckeye Institute’s proposal, legislators instead turned this year’s investment from a loan fund into outright grants.
What is the Buckeye Institute? Sourcewatch identifies it as part of the far-right State Policy Network of think tanks and lobbyists whose members work with the American Legislative Exchange Council and other far-right advocates. Another online tracker of lobbyists and think tanks, Influence Watch identifies Robert Alt, president and CEO of the Buckeye Institute as “the former director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation and a member of the Federalist Society. Buckeye’s vice president of policy, Rea Hederman, is also from the Heritage Foundation. Senior Buckeye Fellow, Michael Franc came from the Hoover Institute and before that from Heritage. Logan Kolas, Buckeye’s economic policy analyst came from the Cato Institute along with visiting legal fellow Andrew Grossman.
While this year’s capital grant that is now supporting the construction of religious schools is modest and extremely limited in scope, ProPublica‘s Hager quotes William Phillis, who has led the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding for over three decades, and is collaborating with over 200 plaintiff school districts in the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit. Well acquainted with the Ohio Legislature’s history of perpetually expanding vouchers after introducing small, experimental programs, Phillis explained to Hager: “They get their foot in the door with a few million dollars in infrastructure funding… It sets a precedent, and eventually hundreds of millions will be going to private school construction.”