The Columbus Board of Education is making critical decisions about school closures, transportation cuts, and staff reductions — decisions that will deeply affect our students, families, and neighborhoods for years to come.

But our community has not been meaningfully included in these decisions. Once again, families and educators are being left out of conversations, actual two-way dialogue, that shape the future of our schools.

It’s time to demand a fair, transparent, and community-centered process for addressing the district’s budget shortfall — one that values students, not savings.

The Columbus Education Justice Coalition (CEJC) has submitted a proposed Budget Shortfall Policy to the Board of Education that ensures:
✅ Transparent analysis of all costs and savings before any school closure or program cut.
✅ Consideration of full impacts on students, families, and neighborhoods.
✅ A representative decision-making committee including parents, educators, students, and community members.
✅ Real, accessible community engagement — including language access for New American families.
✅ A plan to minimize harm from any closures or cuts, grounded in research and best practices. Now we need YOU to take action.

On Wednesday, March 19, Columbus City Schools trans students’ safety was violated when the administration abruptly reverted students’ chosen names in CCS’s systems to the names on their birth certificates. This change was made with no notice to the affected students or families, and despite the fact that their parents and caregivers had formally requested that the district use their children’s chosen names.

This action caused immediate harm: a forced outing of CCS’s trans students, some of whom have been known to their teachers and classmates as their chosen name for years. According to a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health, students who are allowed to use their chosen names at school experience 71% fewer symptoms of severe depression and a 65% decrease in suicide attempts.

Schools should be safe places for all students. We demand dignity over discrimination.