'School choice' is a naked skim of public dollars for fundamentally private interests.

If there is any good news flowing from Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s vile attack on his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, M.D., it’s that Ramaswamy is increasingly desperate.The only people who wanted Ramaswamy back in Ohio were the (few) lucid members of Donald Trump’s inner circle, who pushed Ramaswamy out of Washington so he could wreck things someplace else, far from the White House.That outbound shove was strong enough to resettle Cincinnati native Ramaswamy into suburban Columbus, while denying then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted this year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination, something Husted craved: to be Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s successor.Instead, Husted got shuttled into the old man’s club known as the U.S. Senate, a destination never on Husted’s TripTik. If Husted is thrilled to be a senator, a bystander would be hard-pressed to notice it.Upshot: Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Bexley Democrat, is running rings around Husted in the Senate contest, and the president of the United States – in maybe the most newsy recent development in Husted’s political life – has hailed Ohio’s junior senator as an exemplar of the male physique. Republican Ramaswamy is lagging in his race against Bexley Democrat Acton. Seems Acton is widening her lead over Ramaswamy.Hence, the unspeakable smear directed Acton’s way by Ramaswamy, who can hope playing dirty may propel him into the Governor’s Mansion, because nothing else can. DeWine, who’ll be leaving the governorship in January, condemned Ramaswamy’s attack on Acton, but said he still supports Ramaswamy.That’s the state of the Acton-Ramaswamy race at this writing. But if Ramaswamy’s campaign keeps pumping out slime, he can look forward to a comfortable life in Texas – where he moved his once-Ohio-based business – and Ohioans can look forward to having chosen Amy Acton to be Ohioans’ first elected female governor.Ohio Supreme Court likely will take up ruling that EdChoice vouchers are unconstitutional: Somewhat masked by the hurly-burly of Campaign ’26 was Oct. 15’s unanimous decision by a panel of three judges that ruled Ohio’s EdChoice private-school voucher program unconstitutional.The 10th Ohio District Court of Appeals (Franklin County) trio, composed of three Democrats, including former Democratic State Chair David Leland, and Judges Kristin Boggs and M. Shawn Dingus, overturned Ohio’s EdChoice school voucher program, “now available to virtually all Ohio [pupils] regardless of family income or the quality of local public schools.” And in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 … that “cost [Ohio] taxpayers almost $1.4 billion.The 10th District appellate court is the second tribunal to rule the voucher program is flat-out unconstitutional because Ohio’s constitution says, “no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.” Yet that’s precisely what EdChoice does, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza N. Paige had ruled in June, in a decision the Appeals Court has now upheld.Thomas SuddesSchool choice is a naked skim of public dollars for fundamentally private interests. That, as Judge Paige and the Leland court found, violates the Ohio Constitution -- and moreover at a time when public schools are hurting and thus, of necessity, asking homeowners for property-tax increases in Donald Trump’s teetering economy.Next stop, the Ohio Supreme Court, now 6-1 Republican. That’s why the friends of public education might care to check this year’s Supreme Court ballot, on which two of the high court’s seven seats are at stake.In one contest, incumbent Justice Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, is being challenged by former Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Colleen O’Donnell, a Republican with Greater Cleveland roots. In the other contest, incumbent Republican Justice Dan Hawkins is being challenged by Judge Marilyn Zayas, of the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.True, the re-election of Brunner and the election of Zayas would make the court 5-2 Republican, not a Democratic majority, but closer than now – and could nudge Ohio closer to fair school funding. Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens. To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions, comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.