Our Accomplishments

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Our Accomplishments *

Our Impact: Advancing Honest, Inclusive Public Education Across Ohio

At Honesty for Ohio Education, we believe that lasting change happens when people come together. Our work is rooted in the strength of our collaborations — with partner organizations, community members, educators, students, and families — who share our commitment to protecting the freedom to learn and advancing public education for all Ohio students.
As a statewide convener, Honesty brings together issue-specific coalitions and working groups that are flexible, responsive, and grounded in what’s happening in communities across Ohio. Whether responding to new legislation, organizing public advocacy, or building long-term strategies for equitable education, we ensure our efforts reflect the real needs and voices of those most impacted.

Together with our partners, we are defending the freedom to learn, reclaiming public education, and ensuring every child in Ohio has access to an honest, high-quality education. Here are just a few ways we’ve made an impact since our founding in 2021 — and we’re just getting started.

Through strategic advocacy, public testimony, and rapid-response campaigns, Honesty for Ohio Education has influenced key legislation and policy debates. Working hand-in-hand with our partners and community advocates, we push back against harmful proposals and advance policies that strengthen public education.
Accomplishments:
- Maintain a thorough and updated legislation tracker for Ohio education issues. We identify key priority issues and provide additional tools and resources on those issues.
- Led statewide coalition opposition to legislation censoring honest education (e.g. House Bill 322 and 327 in 2022, Senate Bill 83 in 2024).
- Helped secure removal of voucher expansion in the initial Senate version of the 2025 state budget.
- Organized public testimony that contributed to delaying efforts to implement release time for religious instruction for over a year.
Honesty serves as a trusted convener, bringing together advocacy organizations, districts, educators, students, and community groups. Our flexible, responsive coalitions enable us to address emerging issues quickly and collaboratively, with an unwavering focus on what is happening in Ohio’s classrooms and communities.
Accomplishments:
- Facilitated a growing statewide education coalition, connecting nearly 80 partner organizations that meet weekly with around 55 participants on average.
- Established a School Board Alliance of equity-minded, currently sitting school board members. While group membership is kept private for a variety of reasons, its 79 members, representing 52 districts, support each other through a facilitated network and have successfully:
  - Collaborated with Honesty staff to develop and pass resolutions in support of the Fair School Funding Plan
  - Signed on as individual board members in support of the Fair School Funding Plan
  - Capitalized on Honesty support and resources to coordinate rallies and education town halls in their communities
  - Used national resources provided by Honesty staff to creatively circumvent the problematic USDOE Title VI certification
- Convened rapid-response working groups, including:
  - A Higher Education Workgroup that collaborated to rally against SB83 (Ohio’s anti-DEI higher education bill)
  - A Release Time for Religious Instruction Workgroup with representatives from 25 communities in Ohio developed our RTRI Toolkit
  - An LGBTQ+ Workgroup representing 9 partner organizations developed our HB8 Toolkit
  - A Civil Rights Workgroup of over 50 participants who created statements in response to anti-DEI legislation, a feedback form to collect stories on DEI attacks, and currently working on a toolkit.
  - A Vouchers Workgroup representing 10 organizations who developed an Ohio-specific Voucher Toolkit
  - A Freedom to Read Workgroup that created guidance documents breaking down attacks on libraries and action steps
  - A School Board Races Workgroup engaging in 501(c)(3)-oriented work around Ohio’s 2025 board races that has already held two listening sessions reaching community representatives in 30 school districts.
- Established our first Youth Advisory Team with 25 high school student participants and facilitated meetings with 4 legislators and staff from the Governor’s office on issues of importance to them.
- Participated in a variety of public education networks: Education Civil Rights Alliance, Ohio LGBTQIA+ Alliance, Rally Comms Hub, Ohio Immigrant Alliance, Public Education Defenders, HEAL Together, All in For Ohio Kids, PEN America, OVRC — Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, Public School Strong State Leads, Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, Cleveland Power Alliance, and more…
- Provided partner training on Race-Class Narrative messaging and grassroots organizing.
- Hosted statewide education retreats and strategy sessions.
We equip Ohioans with the tools and opportunities to take action. By supporting local advocates and fostering grassroots leadership, we help amplify the voices of parents, students, and educators in every corner of the state.
Accomplishments:
- Coordinated thousands of calls, emails, and letters to legislators in key advocacy moments, with 350,000+ emails sent to lawmakers.
  - Mobilized record-breaking turnout for testimony at the statehouse against Senate Bill 1, the Higher Education Destruction Act.
- Increased Honesty’s Public School Strong Teams membership to 500 members across 100 school districts
  - Teams members use toolkits, model resolutions, and guidance documents to take action in their communities in support of honest and inclusive education.
- Created at-cost t-shirt merchandise in support of Fair School Funding and public education worn by Ohioans at pro-education events across the state.
Countering misinformation and driving public understanding is central to our mission. We shape the conversation around public education through narrative work, media engagement, and strategic messaging that connects with Ohioans across lines of race, place, and class.

Accomplishments:
- Initiated our first statewide narrative campaign around the reimagination of public education, a campaign we are calling: Strong Ohio Schools, through which we will…
  - Engage Ohioans across demographics, geographies, and political perspectives in understanding what Ohioans want to see in their public schools
  - Collaborate with research partners to produce a research-based, future-focused vision
  - Use this vision to steer policy discourse around education away from culture war issues and back to issues Ohioans care about.
- Viewed as an expert on education issues in Ohio. Recent news:
- Provided media training and messaging support for coalition partners.
- Created and distributed toolkits, fact sheets, and talking points for public use.
- Advanced Race-Class Narrative messaging in campaigns and public discourse.
Our work is powered by the belief that when we come together, we can achieve transformative change for Ohio’s students and communities. Every victory we’ve celebrated is the result of collective action, relationship building, authentic partnerships, and community-focused support—and there’s more to do. Join us in this movement for an honest, fully funded, and inclusive public education for every child in Ohio.
- 2025 Dora Sandoe Bachman Public Education Award from the League of Women Voters Of Ohio
- Honorable Mention for 2024 NCTE National Intellectual Freedom Award