OH: Legislature Considers Extortion and Revenge Against Public Schools

This is just wild.

In Ohio, over 330 local school districts and a bunch of public school parents has sued the state over two of the state's five taxpayer-funded school voucher programs, charging they violate the state constitution. And they've been doing pretty well. 

The assertion has been that the voucher program is unconstitutional because it funds private schools. As the judge wrote in the first round win (this case will inevitably work its way up to the state supreme court) for the plaintiffs:

Defendants argue that EdChoice is not unconstitutional because the State has always funded private schools. Though this may be true, the State may not fund private schools at the expense of public schools or in a manner that undermines its obligation to public education.

Well, Rep. Jamie Callendar has decided that while the case is working through the courts, the legislature should throw some muscle around and try a little extortion and revenge against those school districts.

Callendar is a long-time rep (first elected in 1997, then taking a term-limit break before returning in 2018) who has been a big player in school privatization in Ohio. 

His HB 671 is pretty simple. The state will withhold funding from any school district involved in the lawsuit. The money will go into escrow, and the school district can't have it until they drop their lawsuit.

This is bananapants. For one thing, this is not even clever or subtle extortion. This isn't even "Nice school district. Shame if anything happened to it." It's just flat out, "Let me do what I want, or I'll set fire to your district."

For another thing, this does not really set up a great defense for a case in which a main point is that the legislature, by creating voucher programs, is doing financial damage to public school systems. That brings up the question of the legislation's intent ("Gosh, we didn't mean to hurt public schools with our voucher program!") and this bill really undercuts any protestations by the legislators that they would never, ever try to hurt their beloved public schools.

One can only hope that this bill will die a quick and definitive death, but in Ohio ("The Florida of the Midwest") nothing is certain.