The following article originally appeared on News5Cleveland.com and is published by Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other of his OCJ articles, it is owned by his WEWS in Cleveland and therefore cannot be freely republished by other news outlets.

Two Northern Ohio natives are competing on behalf of District 2 on the State Board of Education.

This is the third edition of OCJ’s State Board of Education series, where District 2 candidates discuss controversial topics and school funding.

Click or tap here to learn why the school board race is worth watching.

Who is in District 2

District 2 is made up of Senate Districts 2, 11, and 13. This includes Ellie, Huron, Lorraine, Lucas, Ottawa, and Wood. Simply put, this is Lake Avon to Toledo.

To find out if you’re in District 2: The Sec. State website has a handy tool called “Find my District.”

Enter your address when you arrive. A pop-up will appear showing your house, Senate, Congress, and school district numbers.

If you’re listed as District 2, you can learn more about the candidates you’re voting for below.

candidate

Current State Senator Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) was a public school educator for nearly 20 years before moving to the State Capitol in 2001. And she’s a sex trafficking survivor. She also served in the United States Air Force.

Sarah McGervey is a conservative middle school teacher at a Catholic school in Cleveland. She has been working as an educator for about six years and is currently working at St. She Leo the Great School in Cleveland. She is from Lake Avon and has a master’s degree in Theology and Ministry. She has been involved in the pro-life movement as a student and as an adult.

culture war

The battle over what students should be taught in schools rages not only in the Ohio legislature, but also at the local level.

Parents have been expressing concerns on their respective sides for about two years now, but the debate is heating up as the election approaches.

Dozens of families, students, and educators contacted the OCJ and asked the team to speak to candidates for the state board of education about the “culture wars.”

In just a few weeks, state commissions will vote on resolutions opposing Title IX protections for the LGBTQ+ community.

Click or tap here for more information on resolution.

McGervey’s social media shows her opposition to critical racial theories and so-called “awakened” ideas.

“I don’t like the cancel culture,” she said. I know there is.”

As for the school board’s resolution, McGervey told the OCJ that he supports Title IX because its origins were to help women.

On her Facebook page, she shared a post from September 11th.

“If this change to Title IX passes, the facts no longer matter and women’s rights no longer matter,” she continued.

One of the best parts of her platform is that parents can have their voice heard.

“Whatever people’s agendas are, wherever people’s opinions are, it’s not for classrooms,” said a middle school teacher. “That’s not what the teacher puts out.”

She wants to go back to “basic skills again” and focus more on math, reading and writing. If she can do this well, she said, it will help her teach history.

“Looking at different parts of history, [understand] What happened in the past, what is happening now, and by examining those things, they will not repeat the mistakes of the past, move on, do productive things, be truly good American citizens, and stand up for freedom. can live in, live for freedom, promote and promote freedom. Be free and do those things and teach others how to do it,” she said.

Fedor knows her fellow public educators are making the right decisions in the classroom, especially when it comes to history and curriculum, she said.

The state senator added that the “battle against public education” continues to escalate as people weaponize CRTs not taught in schools and rally against books they hate.

She was also one of the first public officials to issue a statement condemning the resolution as discriminatory.

“This resolution is hidden under the very thin veil of ‘supportive families’, but what shall we call it? It’s an unprofessional attack,” Fedor said of the Board of Education’s resolution. “The solution is harassment — a complete stop. If adopted, our young people will be driven into social isolation, stigma, bullying and even self-harm.”

During the interview, Fedor didn’t want to spend too much time on culture war issues. Because, she said, it goes hand in hand with funding issues.

“The CRT and other hype of negative attacks never address constitutional funding because it works on their behalf,” she added.

fundraising

Fedor said that issues like the culture war are not a true concern of advocacy groups, but rather a scare tactic to distract attention from financial issues.

“Putting threats in front of it, terrorizing people, and for good intentions, they continually fabricate these exaggerated theories about CRTs, book bans,” she said. It works so taxpayers can’t see what’s going on.”

Beginning in fiscal 2021, lawmakers added hundreds of millions of state dollars in both direct funding and tax credits to subsidize families sending their children to private and charter schools. Critics such as the Ohio Education Association (OEA) say this will make taxpayers pay for these for-profit schools, diverting money away from much-needed public education.

“Every penny that goes into our public tax, charter school system is completely accountable and transparent,” she said. “And with the terribly inexplicable voucher system, [it] Enter a black hole and never be seen by the taxpayer again. ”

She cited the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) as one of the biggest scandals in Ohio history, as did Tom Jackson’s nominee for District 10. The closed online charter school owes Ohio $117 million for public funds it improperly received in its last year of operation, according to state auditors. It closed in 2018. She said this is not a dime for taxpayers in particular and shouldn’t happen.

Fedor has built his career on “good governance,” which is accountability, transparency and oversight, lawmakers said. Modernizing the public education system deserves all the funding it deserves, but this doesn’t mean she wants to completely ignore her private schools and their families.

“If our elected leaders now want to use tax money in this way beyond the accountability, oversight and transparency of public schools, they will seriously consider the need for another item in the budget. “There are some benefits,” she added. .”

McGervey is on the other side of Fedor. She and other school choice advocates, she says, money should always follow the child, not the school.

“Whatever the controversy is, it all boils down to what’s best for the child,” she said.

McGervey didn’t say much about public funding schemes and the impact of nonpublic schools. The conservative said he was here to “represent the people”, identifying his parents and their opinions.

“We are about our children, right? I’m committed to helping you learn. “That’s my answer.”

OCJ, in need of more responses, accessed the campaign account for additional information.

Earlier this year, she posted the following opinion piece to Newsweek: Do you care about progressives?

Fedor said public schools would struggle less if they didn’t have to rely on a system to fund non-public schools. And getting rid of previous funding schemes that focused on funding schools, which were heavy on property taxes, would help as well.

This month McGarvey shared a blog post sharing the benefits of the voucher program.

Click or tap here to see all the stories OCJ’s Morgan Trau has done with state school boards.

Want to stay up to date on candidate positions? OCJ/WEWS can help. We’ve created a guide for the 2022 midterm elections. This is updated daily based on candidate changes.

Follow WEWS State Capitol Correspondent Morgan Trau. twitter and Facebook.