Dear Editor:
As I write this letter it is election day. Thousands of Ohioans are going to the polls and voting for or against local school levies.
If approved, the money these levies generate will be appropriated in local school board meetings governed by Ohio Sunshine Laws, which states that all district level decisions must be made in a public board of education meeting.
Every one of these school districts will be subject to a yearly audit by the Ohio auditor’s office where each expenditure will be scrutinized and verified of its legal purpose.
However, $1 billion of our tax dollars have been funneled away from these public schools and given to private schools in the form of vouchers. There are no boards of education governed by Ohio’s Sunshine Laws at these private schools, and there is no public forum where private school’s expenditures can be scrutinized by taxpayers who fund the vouchers.
Not a single one of these schools will be audited by the Ohio auditor’s office. Quite simply, voucher money that private schools receive can be spent as they see fit without any oversight.
Any student who walks into a public school where he/she resides is absolutely entitled to an education in that school district. Private schools can pick and choose whom they admit and keep.
They can send a student back to public school if they are a discipline problem, and they can send them back if they are disabled and the district lacks the resources or patience to teach these children.
If private schools accept large sums of money from the state government, they should be held to the same standards as the public schools.
They must educate every student who wants to attend their school. If the student has a discipline problem, they need to address that and help that child. If the student is disabled, they need to provide any and all services that student needs for a free and appropriate education just as public schools are mandated to do.
Last but not least, each private school needs a board of education that conducts open meetings according to Ohio’s Sunshine Laws. They need to account for the funds received and how the money is spent, as well as a yearly state audit.
Marty Perlaky
