Keynotes with Keyes

Writing for What’s Right: My Letter to the Senate Finance Committee

This week, I did something I have done many times before, but this time, the stakes felt especially urgent. I sat down, opened my laptop, and wrote a letter to the Ohio Senate Finance Committee.

Why? Because the future of fair school funding in our state is under threat.

As a public school graduate and the single mother of four children who also graduated from public schools, I’ve seen firsthand what adequate and inadequate funding means for our students. It means the difference between thriving and struggling. Between prepared and overlooked. Between equity and injustice.

In my letter, I expressed my strong opposition to any cuts to Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan (HB1). This is not just about dollars, it’s about dignity, opportunity, and our collective future. Every child, regardless of where they live or what their family earns, deserves a school that is resourced to meet their needs.

This Friday, May 30th, I’ll take that message off the page and deliver it in person. I’ve been invited to speak directly before the Senate Finance Committee. I’m going not just as a candidate, but as a mom, a grandmother, a neighbor, and a community advocate.

Our students cannot afford for us to be silent. Their classrooms are not political bargaining chips, they are launchpads for tomorrow’s leaders. I will be there to speak for them. To demand fairness. And to remind lawmakers of their responsibility to invest in all Ohio children.

Stay tuned. I’ll share updates after the hearing—and I’ll continue fighting until equity isn’t an ask, but a guarantee.

– Keyes