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What do you get when you combine an exploding universal voucher program with declining state tax revenues?

We’re about to find out in Ohio just as Arizonans found out recently when an out-of-control voucher expansion blew up their state budget.

The universal voucher program in Ohio is unique because there is no cap on spending.

Anyone who applies for a private school voucher, even millionaires and billionaires, receives at least a partial refund and rebate for tuition.

The rules for reporting family income are very loose. High school vouchers are worth $8,407 per student and K-8 are worth $6,165 per student.

As of March, there were more than 91,000 applications for private school vouchers for the 2023-24 school year, up from 24,323 in the 2022-23 school year, and the deadline for applying is June 30.

The vast majority of the students taking vouchers were already enrolled in private schools.

At the same time the voucher program is exploding, the state’s tax collections have come in under projections for four of the last five months.

According to the Toledo Blade, Ohio’s tax collections have not been in the black since November.

Unlike the federal government, Ohio lawmakers and our governor must balance the budget.

The state has collected $446.7 million less in taxes than projected at the same time vouchers are going to cost the state as much as $1 billion.

In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs had a practical idea to rein in the skyrocketing costs of the private school voucher program that was busting the state’s budget. Gov. Hobbs proposed requiring students to attend public school for 100 days before becoming eligible for a voucher.

Do you think that idea has a chance in Ohio to curb spending?

The money for vouchers comes from the same line-item in the budget that pays for public schools so a dollar more for vouchers is a dollar less available for public schools.

When it comes time to balance the budget in June, what will lawmakers do?

This is why we are suing the state, challenging the constitutionality of the private school voucher program.

Is your district part of the lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Learn how to join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio

On Wednesday, April 3 beginning at 6 p.m. Vouchers Hurt Upper Arlington, a local chapter of Vouchers Hurt Ohio, will host a panel of experts to discuss the growing existential threat to all public schools in Ohio, known as the private school voucher program EdChoice.

In person seating for the event is currently at capacity, so we are offering an opportunity for interested citizens to join the program via Zoom. Click the button below to register for the meeting.

Agenda

6 p.m. : Welcome and Introduction: Betsy O’Brochta  (10 minutes)

6:10: The Big Picture: Background and History of Vouchers: William Phillis, Executive Director, Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding ; Former Assistant State Superintendent of Ohio Department of Education (10 minutes)

6:20: The State of Play Today in Ohio: David Pepper–Accomplished writer, lawyer, former Ohio Democratic Party chair and co-founder of Blue Ohio  (10 minutes)

6:30: Ed Choice/Vouchers Hurt Ohio Lawsuit Overview: Dennis Willard–Award winning former statehouse reporter and founder of Precision New Media   (10 minutes)

6:40: Financial Ramifications: Dr. Charlie Wilson–Emeritus professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, former School Board member and President of the Worthington City Schools, Past President of Ohio School Boards Association (10 minutes)

6:50: The State of Play Today in Upper Arlington & A Call to Action: Susan Miller (10 minutes)

7 p.m. : Q&A: Maureen Reedy & Jeanne Melvin (30 minutes)

Upon request to the Executive Director, the Coalition shall make reasonable accommodation for a disabled person to be able to participate in this activity.

Unless otherwise specified, Steering Committee meetings will be held at Columbus City Schools Southland Center, 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43207

2024 SCHEDULE

February 21, 2024 – 10:00 am Columbus City Schools Southland Center, Room 825, 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43207

April 17, 2024 – 10:00 am Columbus City Schools Southland Center, Room 825, 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43207

June 20, 2024 – 10:00 am Columbus City Schools Southland Center, Room 825, 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43207

August 21, 2024 – 10:00 am Columbus City Schools Southland Center, Room 825, 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43207

October 16, 2024 – 10:00 am Columbus City Schools Southland Center, Room 825, 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43207

November 2024—Date, Time and Room TBDOSBA Capital Conference, Greater Columbus Convention Center, 400 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215

Finally, the gloves have come off with the “Vouchers Hurt Ohio” lawsuit by 100 public school districts in Ohio challenging the constitutionality of the states’s voucher system.

The Ohio Constitution states that “no religious sect, or other sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.” 

Ohio’s public schools have lost $2 billion of funding over the past decade because the state legislature has passed laws shifting state funding for public schools to pay for vouchers for private and religious school tuition. 

The loss of billions statewide to vouchers continues to be a direct hit on property taxpayers and students as more school levies have had to be put on the ballot and vital school programs and resources have suffered huge cuts.

The vast majority, 95% (1.7 million) of Ohio’s children attend our public school system designated by the adoption of the Ohio Constitution in 1851. The original constitutional commitment to “thoroughly and efficiently” fund one common public school system for the children of Ohio is crystal clear.

More:Plan would give every Ohio K-12 student a voucher to attend private school

It’s time to get real. Ohio’s constitutional promise of “thoroughly” funding “one common public school system” cannot be sustained if billions of dollars continue to be taken from public schools to pay for vouchers for multiple private school systems. 

More:Ohio legalized school vouchers to help kids in failing schools. Is that what’s happening?

Cheers to all of these courageous public school community members from over 100 Ohio public school districts. There are thousands of Ohioans who support their lawsuit seeking constitutional integrity for Ohio’s one common public school system.

We stand ready and inspired to join Ohio’s public school communities in their urgent legal challenge to prove that vouchers violate Ohio’s Constitution.

Maureen Reedy, Columbus

Read the story in the Dispatch here.

For Immediate Release
January 4, 2022

COLUMBUS – A coalition of public school districts filed a lawsuit today in Franklin County Common Pleas court challenging the constitutionality of the rapidly growing private school voucher program that is siphoning away hundreds of millions of dollars from public school students, teachers, classrooms and communities.

Former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice and current Columbus City Schools board member Eric Brown said the lawsuit asks the judicial system a simple, but critical question:

“Where does the Ohio General Assembly get the power to fund private school vouchers? That power is nowhere to be found in the Ohio Constitution. In fact, the Ohio Constitution forbids it. Lawmakers have the authority and responsibility to fund “a” system of “common schools,” with common standards and resources for all of Ohio’s taxpayers, parents, and students,” Brown said at a press conference today outlining the lawsuit.

“Funding schools that aren’t for everybody is not the business of the Ohio General Assembly, and it is not the responsibility of Ohio taxpayers to pay for these private schools,” Brown said. “The Ohio General Assembly either knows they are violating the Ohio Constitution and doesn’t care or the members who support expanding the private school vouchers need a history lesson themselves.”

William L. Phillis, executive director for the Coalition of Equity & Adequacy of School Funding, was instrumental in leading the successful court challenge to the way Ohio pays for public schools during the ‘90s.

“The DeRolph school funding lawsuit was the case of the 20th century. The EdChoice private school voucher lawsuit we filed today is destined to be the case of the 21st Century,” Phillis said. “In fact, the private school voucher system is siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars from an already underfunded system of public schools. The legislature and the governor are putting our state and our public school children at risk and they admit it.”

Nneka Jackson, a school board member with the Richmond Heights School District in Cuyahoga County, said private school vouchers are making school segregation in Ohio worse, not better.

“If someone tells you this is about helping poor minority children, hook them up to a lie detector test asap and stand back because the sparks are going to fly,” Jackson said.

“About 40 percent of Richmond Heights residents are white. Before the EdChoice private school voucher program, about 26 percent of the students in the Richmond Heights School District were white and 74 percent were students of color. Today, after EdChoice, Richmond Heights is three percent white and 97 percent students of color,” Jackson said.

“Private schools are allowed to discriminate, plain and simple, based on disability, disciplinary records, academic standings, religion and financial status. These are often proxies for race and other protected characteristics. Ohio is essentially engaged in state-sponsored discrimination in admissions and retention. You know who can’t do this? Public schools. Common schools,” Jackson said.

Dan Heintz, a school board member in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District, said his district lost more than $27 million to private school vouchers, and this forced voters to pass two levies to raise property taxes.

Heintz said 95 percent of our EdChoice voucher users have never been enrolled in one of our schools. 

“So, contrary to the narrative, these families aren’t fleeing a failing school.”The only thing they’re fleeing is a tuition bill. A private school tuition bill that is now being paid by Ohio taxpayers,” Heintz said.

Eric Resnick, a school board member for Canton City Schools in Stark County, said high school students receive a $7,500 voucher while public school students receive far less from the state in basic education funding.

There is no truth to the claim by voucher proponents that “the money follows the student,” Resnick said. “To those who say the money should follow the student, I ask why the discrepancy? Why should voucher students get $7,500 and some public school students get one-fifth or less than that amount? If the money was truly following the student, then each public school student would also receive $7,500.”

The complaint can be read here.

School districts in the Vouchers Hurt Ohio coalition can be found here.

The E&A Coalition is working with Vouchers Hurt Ohio, a growing coalition of public school districts that have come together to sue the state over the unconstitutional and harmful private school voucher program. Vouchers Hurt Ohio now has nearly 100 member school districts in 47 of Ohio’s 88 counties that open their doors wide and welcoming to more than 250,000 public school students.