COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Thousands of parents, students and teachers made their voices heard Wednesday morning.
They were protesting proposed cuts to charter schools. Ohio has 330 charter schools, 36 of them are online.
The My School, My Choice coalition marched from Veterans Memorial to the Statehouse to draw attention to disparities between charter-school spending per student versus traditional-school funding.
The coalition says charter schools receive $6,800 per child while traditional schools receive $9,400.
Strickland’s budget cuts public charter school funding by 26 percent.
“That's a big enough portion of our budget that there's no way we can continue to operate if we lose $1.5 million of our budget,” Oakstone Community School parent Amy Price said.
“I would like to see equal school funding for all schools. I've raised five kids through Hope Academy. I don't want to see a decrease in funding,” parent Terry Nurse said.
Strickland wants to fund schools according to what they do and how they do it. He said he is open to suggestions.
House Bill 1 would change the way charter schools would be funded. Charter schools would no longer be lumped in with traditional-school funding if the bill were to become law.
House Bill 1 passed the House and is now being debated in the Ohio Senate.
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