Public school districts across the state are speaking out against a Statehouse bill they say is designed to force them to stop fighting the state's school choice voucher program in court. House Bill 671, introduced by Ohio Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, would strip state funding for any public school participating in lawsuits against the state's EdChoice voucher program. The bill was introduced on Feb. 2 and has been referred to the Ohio House Finance Committee. In 2022, 100 public schools sued over the private school voucher program. That coalition, called Vouchers Hurt Ohio, has since tripled in size to over 300 public schools across the state. In June 2025, the group won a lawsuit after a Franklin County judge ruled that using public funding for private school education was unconstitutional. The state has since appealed the decision. At the Feb. 12 press conference, William Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, which is beh...