Be prepared to wince or worse

April 15, 2025

Good Tuesday morning,

The Columbus Dispatch had a front page story on Sunday addressing the harmful universal voucher program that gives readers a keen insight into the thinking of the pro-voucher crowd, and also underlines why we are suing to challenge the constitutionality of EdChoice vouchers.

Here are quotes from Troy McIntosh, who works for the pro-voucher Center for Christian Virtue and the Ohio Christian Education Network that is funded, in part, by money from private religious schools that receive taxpayer-paid voucher dollars.

“We firmly believe that if the government is going to compel education, then parents ought to be permitted to determine which type of education is best for their kids and their family.”

We are not sure how to even begin to respond to that, but there’s more.

The Dispatch reporters point out EdChoice recipients grew by more than 240 percent in the 2023-2024 school year, yet private school enrollment in Ohio increased by just more than 2 percent so the vast majority of students taking vouchers were already enrolled in private schools.

“The first year is obviously going to be stilted more heavily towards kids who are already in private schools but every year following the opposite is going to be true,” McIntosh told the Dispatch. Yes, the Dispatch quoted McIntosh saying stilted.

The Dispatch also proves McIntosh’s “opposite is going to be true,” is actually false. In the 2024-25 school year, the explosive private school voucher program grew by 17.5 percent while enrollment in private schools grew by 10.5 percent, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Welfare (ODEW).

Oh, but there is more.

The Dispatch writes about how two Republican lawmakers introduced legislation to create accountability measures for the voucher program that went nowhere in the Ohio General Assembly last year.

One of the sponsors, former state Rep. Bill Seitz, described passing accountability as Sisyphean and noted, “I don’t think the contours of the General Assembly this time are any more favorable to those ideas than they proved to be last time.”

Then, McIntosh chimes in again, telling the Dispatch…private schools should “absolutely not” be subject to audits, comparing vouchers to SNAP benefits for groceries.

Oh, yes he did, going on to say:

“When a family uses SNAP or WIC money right to buy food at Kroger or Meijer, nobody’s calling for Kroger or Meijer to be held up to a public audit. That’s a private entity. These all have financial controls in place,” McIntosh told the Dispatch.

There are so many things wrong with this argument.

SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program that provides food benefits for low-income families. WIC is the Women, Infants and Children program designed to improve pregnancies, provide nutritional counseling and food assistance for low-income families.

SNAP and WIC are audited.

Vouchers are not audited. There is zero financial or academic accountability for a program that is spending more than $1 billion a year.

Oh, and SNAP and WIC have income caps for eligibility unlike private school vouchers where everyone including millionaires, even billionaires like Les Wexner, are eligible for a voucher.

Vouchers are a refund and rebate program for wealthy families, and according to the Dispatch, that is just hunky-dory with Gov. Mike DeWine.

“Everyone, all these people, are paying some taxes. Certainly, some are paying more than others. I don’t have a problem with it being used by middle-class families or even upper-middle-class families,” DeWine told the Dispatch in a quote that oddly channels Squealer from George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

Read the entire article here.

The Dispatch gives plenty of ink and space to the arguments against vouchers, but the quotes from the pro-voucher crowd are particularly insightful.

Vouchers go on trial this year before Franklin County Common Pleas Jaiza Page.

Is your district part of our historic lawsuit? Check here.

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

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio