Honesty for Ohio Education (HFOE) is a left-of-center education activist organization. It affirms intersectional principles that emphasize sex, gender, and race, and claims America has a legacy of oppression. HFOE’s main function is to mobilize activists to support or oppose state-level education legislation. It opposes bills that would forbid transgender people from using bathrooms reserved for their opposite natal sex and opposes efforts to charge school librarians and administrators who promote or make available obscene content. ^{1 2}

HFOE is not a standalone non-profit, but rather is fiscally sponsored by Ohio Voice, a left-of-center organization that sponsors other left-leaning organizations. ³

Founding and History

Honesty for Ohio Education does not reveal its founding history on its website. The group’s Facebook page was created in 2018. The group’s founding director, Cynthia Peeples, lists on her LinkedIn profile that she began working there in 2021. ^{4 5}

Finances

As a fiscally sponsored organization, Honesty for Ohio Education does not file a tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. Rather, its data is included in Ohio Voice’s return, which does not list the respective budgets for its fiscally sponsored organizations. ⁶

Organization Philosophy

Honesty for Ohio Education holds left-of-center views and seeks to promote and encode them in Ohio education policy. The group views its mission as ensuring that Ohio schools are “honest” about what the organization considers to be America’s dark and oppressive history. The group claims that discrimination, such as “racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, classism and other forms of discrimination,” are rife in American history and their legacy continues today. ¹

The ”honest” in Honesty for Ohio Education refers to ensuring that discussions and teaching based on intersectional left-wing talking points are included in Ohio schools. This includes race and sex. Not only must these various identities be discussed, but they must be celebrated and the “trauma” of these identities processed so that “healing” can take place in the classroom. ²

The group affirms that “colorblindness” in respect to race is harmful in education and seeks to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the classroom and administrative practices. ⁷

Projects and Initiatives

Honesty for Ohio Education’s main function is to rate legislation in the Ohio legislature and mobilize activism for or against it. As of December 2024, the group lists four main campaigns in which it is involved. ⁸

HFOE opposes an amendment to Ohio law that would require school districts to allow students to opt into specific religious instruction. The group claims this will allow predatory religious institutions, specifically a Christian nonprofit called LifeWise, into schools. ⁸

HFOE also opposes bills that would ban transgender-identifying people from using bathrooms reserved for other than their natal sex in schools. It claims that this prohibition will not protect women (it identifies natal women as “cis” women) but rather lead to discrimination against transgender people. ⁸

It opposes a bill dealing with college-level education that would curtail mandatory DEI trainings and race and identity-centric hiring policies, fearing it would result in college academic departments that heavily rely on critical race theory and other similar identity and grievance theories being closed. ⁸

The group also opposes bills that would result in librarians and school officials being charged with felonies if they were to provide obscene material. ⁸

Leadership

Christina Collins is the executive director of Honesty for Ohio Education, a position she began in December of 2023. She holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction and was previously an elected member of the Ohio State Board of Education. ⁹

1. “About Us.” HFOE. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.honestyforohioeducation.org/we-are.html.
2. “What Is Honest Education?” HFOE. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.honestyforohioeducation.org/what-is-honest-education.html.
3.  “Donate.” HFOE. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.honestyforohioeducation.org/donate.html.
4. “Page Transparency.” Facebook. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.facebook.com/Honesty4OhioEd/about_profile_transparency.
5. “Cynthia Peeples.” LinkedIn.com. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiapeeples/.
6. Ohio Voice, Return of an organization exempt from taxation (Form 990), 2022.
7. “Education Resources.” HFOE. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.honestyforohioeducation.org/newedresources.html.
8. “Home.” HFOE. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.honestyforohioeducation.org/.
9. “Dr. Christina Collins.” LinkedIn.com. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-christina-collins-6aa7a858/.