In the absence of a viable, fair and constitutional school funding formula in Ohio, state lawmakers have decided instead to focus on manipulating the language of the state constitution to allow them to spend taxpayer dollars where THEY want to spend.

A look at school funding by Columbus TV station WCMH shows more than $5.5 million in tax money is being used to support renovation projects at private schools, in part because of their link to the state’s education voucher program.

WCMH reports there is funding in the form of grant payments for 11 private schools, hidden in the one-time community investments section of the state budget. Of those 11, eight are private Christian schools with students in the EdChoice program. Some of the schools received a few thousand dollars. But others ranged into the hundreds of thousands. SPIRE Academy and Holy Trinity Orthodox Christian Academy and Preschool received $1 million each, according to WCMH. And Mansfield Christian School received $1.5 million. The total spent on these nonpublic schools, the majority of which are Christian as well, was $5,530,393.

But the state constitution says state funding cannot be used for religious or private school funds.

John Fortney, spokesman for Ohio Senate Republicans, isn’t worried about that. Instead, he answered WCMH’s questions by pointing to a different section of the state constitution:

“It shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship, and to encourage schools and the means of instruction.”

Fortney told WCMH lawmakers have chosen to interpret that as meaning they should be protecting both schools and religion, and therefore, “Encourage schools. It doesn’t say ‘encourage only public schools.'”

One wonders whether they’ve been paying attention to what’s going on in South Carolina, where a ruling declared its school voucher program defies the state constitution. Further, how many of those same lawmakers have schools in their districts that received an Ohio School Report Card rating that declared the district “needs support to meet state standards?”

It’s hard to know from where that support will come if lawmakers are more intent on playing games with constitutional language and taxpayer dollars. Taxpayers and our students deserve better.