The May levy results were not a warning shot. They heard the gun going off. Only 24 of 66 school levies passed statewide — 36% — down from 64% a year ago and 52% the year before that. That is not a bad cycle. That is a collapse.
The districts getting hit hardest are familiar by now. Parma hasn't passed a new operating levy since 2011 and is flirting with a fiscal precaution designation from the state. Streetsboro canceled junior varsity sports and cut library aides after its third straight levy failure. Barberton was planning layoffs before the votes were counted.
We are now seriously debating House Bill 355 — sponsored by Rep. David Thomas (R-Jefferson) — which would raise the voter approval threshold for school levies from a simple majority to 60%. Even House Speaker Matt Huffman pumped the brakes, calling it "a significant step to say we're not going to have majority rule." When a Republican House Speaker is defending majority rule against members of his own caucus, the room has shifted. The bill may go nowhere. The fact that it has legs at all says plenty.
If HB 355 were law today, 35 of the 74 school levies that passed this past cycle would have failed. That's not protecting taxpayers. That's pulling the floor out from under kids who didn't vote.
Ohio public school enrollment has dropped 2.8% since 2019. Adult satisfaction with public education fell from 37% to 24% between 2017 and 2025. Ohio has 119,285 students enrolled in Catholic schools — among the highest in the country — and 38% of Catholic schools nationally are carrying a waiting list. Voters aren't just tired of the ask. Some of them have already moved their kids down the road and kept writing the check anyway.
The rankings game hasn't helped. Niche dropped SAT and ACT scores from its methodology, making it easier than ever for a struggling district to look outstanding on paper.
The same ballot that killed school levies approved 12 of 14 library levies. Ohioans didn't turn against public institutions. They stopped trusting that the number on the levy reflects what's actually broken.
That's the explanation problem. And no ballot date fixes it.
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