The Ohio General Assembly is resisting allowing Lucas County to put a proposed countywide pre-school tax levy on the ballot.
If the legislature does not approve the change, Lucas County voters will not have the opportunity to say in a vote whether they want to subsidize the cost of pre-kindergarten education.
A nonprofit called HOPE Toledo since 2019 has been attempting to raise the funds needed to make pre-K education available to all children. It’s been a tough slog, despite heavy lifting by Pete Kadens, the retired cannabis CEO and Ottawa Hills native whose donations spurred the nonprofit.
Recently HOPE Toledo sought a $200,000 bailout from the Lucas County commissioners and Toledo City Council to get through the current school year. Now, as reported Sunday by The Blade’s Alex Bracken, the pre-school providers that partner with HOPE Toledo have been informed that the organization would not be providing funding for next year’s class. The organization served 336 4-year-olds last year.
The cost of universal pre-K is about $15,000 a year. HOPE Toledo’s pre-K program provides an average of about $6,000 in assistance per child. The public will need an education in why it costs $15,000 a year. If not explained to the public’s satisfaction, the levy will fail.
According to the county commissioners, existing state law does not allow them to put pre-school education on the ballot, so there has been an effort through our representatives in the House to get the enabling language approved.
According to a report in Sunday’s Blade, hope for that is diminishing.
It wouldn’t be the first time that voters have turned down a levy raising money for pre-school. An income-tax increase was on the ballot for Toledo voters in March, 2020, and was rejected by about 12 points. We believe the measure failed because it was packaged with other expectations and because there was a lack of transparency about it.
A straight-up pre-K levy would stand a good chance of passing.
Lowering the property tax burden is on the agenda of the Republican leadership of the General Assembly, and so a provision allowing Lucas County to add another levy to the property tax bill might be seen as in conflict with that goal.
We agree that the property tax is a burden on citizens. So is the lack of child care and preschool education.
There are other ways it can happen.
Montgomery County has a human services levy that provides some of the $8.3 million allowing Dayton to serve about 4,000 4-year-old children. The program is also funded by the city’s income tax which was renewed in March, 2024.
First Published April 15, 2025, 4:00 a.m.
