Children & Schools

Free Breakfast and Lunch for K-12, Funding Public Schools, Early Education, Technical & Trade Schools, Additional Educational Courses through Local Libraries, and Professional Development for Adults.

I want to enact legislation that puts our kids first. My 1st pieces of legislation that I hope to introduce are Free* School Breakfast & Lunch to ALL of Ohio’s K-12 Schools, regardless of the school’s designation as a Public, Private, or Charter School. Over 500,000 (1/2 a Million) children in Ohio suffer from Food Insecurity and Hunger. That’s 1 in 5 Children who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Free* School Breakfast & Lunch for ALL K-12 is a good way to start putting and end to Childhood Hunger.

I want to do this by only taxing the wealthiest. Ohio only taxes it’s residents who make $1 Million per year at 3.35%, people who make $10 Million a year are only taxed at 3.49%, $100 Million a year earners -EVEN LESS - 3.125% for tax year 2025 and will become a flat 2.75% for tax year 2026 and beyond. Ohio also has about a 10 BILLIONARES, who are also currently, only taxed at 3.125%. My goal would be to pass a state-wide tax to Millionaires and Billionaire to pay 2% more of their income which would be SOLELY to fund our schools. This would be dived in half with 1% going towards free school breakfast and lunches for every district in the state. The other 1% would given only to Public School Districts to help pay for things like: school building maintenance, bus maintenance, and paying our teachers, school administrators, teachers aides, and school bus drivers a higher wage. The goal is to also have enough money left over that this would also cover school supplies, educational activities outside the classroom, and more.

This is how I hope to fund our Public Schools. Our public school are currently ranked 23rd for spending per student but we rank 30th out of all 50 states, for educational value and outcomes among our K-12 schools. We spend $16,687 per pupil, annually, yet, we are still not equipping our students with the tools they need in order to have a bright and successful future full of opportunities.

While the State General Revenue Fund (GRF) and Ohio Lottery Profits are allocating more money towards our students than ever before, we must ask ourselves, WHY aren’t our student’s outcomes improving then? Why are so many school building so old that the district is unable to keep up with the maintenance? Why are there so FEW new teachers as well as, why are so many teachers leaving the field altogether whether they quit or retire? There are many question that I know I am not alone in wondering about. I plan to dig into this topic and find the answers and then create bigger a plan to solve it.