Jim Renacci, a former Ohio Republican congressman, on Thursday unveiled a new political action committee in an effort to elect conservative candidates to Ohio’s school boards.
The new Save Our Schools (SOS) Ohio PAC, according to a news release from Renacci, would aid candidates in raising funds and targeting voters to win these important seats. It will also use data capturing and analysis on all races to identify crucial races to flip control of local school boards.
“Today we announce the rollout of the Save Our Schools Ohio PAC to restore proper leadership in Ohio’s schools for parents and children across our state. We have to fight for education and our children and grandchildren. Ohio needs smart, prepared students to lead us into the future,” Renacci said.
The former congressman said local boards of education are doing little to counteract “woke policies” and asserted that boards are putting their resources toward lowering kids’ essential academic standards. Save Our Schools Ohio will be looking to combat woke policies such as the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools and in some instances the use of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) a Trojan horse for CRT which are big distractions that take students away from traditional education in the classroom.
Renacci says that the PAC will restore leadership and bring back common sense education for Ohio’s children and parents.
Renacci’s announcement comes mere days after Accuracy in Media conducted two undercover investigations throughout the state and uncovered that school administrators in both Cincinnati and Columbus have admitted to deceiving parents and covertly indoctrinating students with CRT in the classrooms.
Renacci omitted from the statement any information on whether the initiative will aim to support conservative candidates in particular. The Board of Education elections in Ohio are nonpartisan, but in recent years, conservative candidates have been running for seats on boards of education nationwide more frequently in order to bring schools back to the basics of standard education and to get rid of woke ideologies and indoctrination in the classroom.
“The future of Ohio’s schools are at stake in 2023 at a time when the State Board of Education and local boards are doing very little to combat woke policies and are instead are focusing resources and efforts to weaken core educational standards for students,” Rennaci said.
According to Renacci’s statement that in order to prepare students for the future “Woke curriculum and spending taxpayer dollars on liberal school-sponsored programs won’t get it done.”
Renacci said Save Our Schools Ohio will be working with “dozens” of statewide organizations to support candidates in school board races.
Republican lawmakers are also trying to stop liberal education in Ohio schools by pushing for the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 11 sponsored by State Senator Sandra O-Brien (R-Ashtabula), known as the Parental Education Freedom Act, to empower parents to be the primary decision-makers regarding where and what type of education their children receive and to help end the political games played by the public education system.
Under SB 11, the current EdChoice Scholarship Program would expand to all Ohio students for either a $5,500 scholarship (for grades K-8) or a $7,500 scholarship (for grades 9-12) to attend a private school. Families choosing to home-school would be eligible for a non-refundable state tax credit of up to $2,000 for reimbursement of educational expenses for their children.
Last year, State Senator Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin) sponsored SB 178 to “restructure” the liberal Ohio Department of Education giving more control to Republican Governor Mike DeWine however it stalled in the Ohio House.
According to Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization, the Center for Christian Virtue‘s President Aaron Baer, “Ohio must no longer allow any student to be trapped in under performing and radically progressive schools that undermine parental rights and authority.”
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Jim Renacci” by Jim Renacci. Background Photo “Classroom” by Max Fischer.
