Why Business Cares

If you own, operate, or work in a local business, public education is vital to your current and future success. Over 90% of Ohioans are educated in public schools.

Teachers and education support professionals (bus drivers, cafeteria workers, lab technicians etc.) provide the foundational education and learning environment for your current and future employees. Without a talent pool of educated employees, businesses would struggle to operate, innovate and adapt to an increasingly complex and competitive market place. By supporting public education you support the continued creation of this vital resource.

Teachers and education support professionals within public education also provide the majority of your customers’ foundational education. A quality education is undoubtedly the means to long-term prosperity and quality job creation. The greater that prosperity, the greater the business opportunities it creates for people like you.

• There is a clear consensus among researchers that education enhances productivity.
• Research indicates that quality public schools can help make states and localities more economically competitive.
• Public schools indisputably influence residential property values.

Just as importantly is the here and now. Those who work in the public education system are also your customers. They shop, order and consume services and generate word of mouth business, every day. Without these hundreds of thousands of professionals and their families contributing to their local economies, many businesses would suffer. It’s critical that local businesses continue to support public education and the jobs that help build future foundations for our prosperity. All our futures depend upon it.

Please support public education and those who work in it.

You can read the scientific research from Knowledgeworks on how public education positively impacts economic development

Public Schools and Economic Development

Welcome to the Future

Welcome to the Future, or more correctly
JOIN the FUTURE. Join a new advocacy campaign aimed at supporting public education, its teachers and education support professionals.

In today's economic and political environment, our public school system and those who serve in it are under increasing pressure and stress. Smaller budgets and greater demands mean we must all be extra vigilant to guarantee that our future, indeed the future of our students, is not irreparably harmed by reactionary forces using this time of uncertainty to push their ideological agenda.

Key Goals

• Advocate for great public schools
• Continually build a strong network of community support
• Promote policies that improve public education
• Foster respect for public school teachers and education support professionals

You can help

If you are as interested and passionate about our goals as we are, you can sign up for our newsletter, Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook

The Reckless Budget

The Budget Facts, so far

• The budget leaves school districts with $3.1 billion less overall funding over the next two years. That means school districts will have 11.5% less total funding next year, and a 4.5% further decrease in the budget’s second year, forcing drastic cuts and property tax increases.
• There are no strategies to make up for an estimated $800 million in annual lost federal funding.
• The budget reneges on “hold harmless” payments to schools during the phase-out period for Tangible Personal Property Taxes, costing school districts $678 million over two years.
• The budget provides nearly $400 million less over the biennium to higher education, including a 5% cut to the Ohio College Opportunity Grant next year.
• The cuts extend to nearly every area of education – early childhood, special education, prison education and instruction for incarcerated youths.

More information is available and will be added, at the menu on the right.

Issues & Action Areas

No one can deny that education is the engine that drives our country forward, and that teachers and education support professionals are the people who steer our children in the right direction.

Each and every day our children grow a little bit more through the knowledge they gain in the classroom, and the examples they see set by their teachers.

Supporting public education and the professionals who work in our schools is crucial to our long term future and the future of our children.

Join the Future seeks to provide you, as supporters of public education and its professionals, the information, tools and news needed to preserve this vital public service as it comes under ever greater pressure from reactionary forces seeking to tear down decades of progress.

From the menu on the left you can navigate to information and resources regarding issues and actions that are vital to this goal. Thanks for Joining the Future and helping us fight to preserve a world class education for our children. We appreciate the support you give the world-class professionals who work hard every day to help our students succeed.

About us

Join the Future is a collaboration among professional educators, support staff, the communities we serve, and citizens whose interests include supporting great public schools throughout Ohio.

Key Goals

• Advocate for great public schools
• Continually build a strong network of community support
• Promote policies that improve public education
• Foster respect for public school teachers and education support professionals

There are a number of ways you can contact us.

• Email:admin@jointhefuture.org. We read all our mail. Would love to hear from you if you have ideas, tips or suggestions for Join the Future.
• You can also sign up for our weekly emails by subnitting your email in the form above.
• You can message us on Twitter, @jointhefutureOH
• Or you can visit our Facebook page

However you choose to contact us, we look forward to hearing from you.