Featured speakers: Rep. Jay Edwards (R) from 94th House District which includes Athens, Meigs, Vinton and Washington Counties; Sen. Frank Hoagland (represented by Aaron Dauterman) from Senate District 30 which includes Athens, Belmont, Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson, Megis, Monroe, Noble, Vinton, and Washington Counties; and Taylor Sappington, the declared Democratic 2018 candidate for the 94th House District.

The primary goal of the Town Hall is to give our legislators and candidates the opportunity to hear which education issues most concern their constituents and to inform their constituents of their position on education issues.

Another goal is to raise awareness of the current effort by the Ohio House Bipartisan Caucus on School Funding to revise Ohio’s currently unconstitutional funding method for public schools. Current reliance on property taxes to fund local schools causes deeper budget deficits in poorer school districts because they lack sufficient property valuation to generate adequate funding. Of the 116 school districts in Southern and Eastern Ohio, 75 (60%) will be in deficit funding status by the next biennial budget.

If you believe that all the children of Ohio should be given the same opportunity to receive an adequate level of education regardless of where they live, please join us and add your voice to the conversation!