Berea joins VHO lawsuit, the reason is enlightening

February 25, 2025

Good Tuesday morning,

Berea City Schools near Cleveland in Cuyahoga County is the latest district to join our Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the harmful private school voucher program that is siphoning nearly $1 billion away from public schools each year.

The reason the board members voted to join is shocking and enlightening.

Take a look at this chart “Voucher Usage in the Berea Schools.”

As it notes, the chart created by Berea Board of Education Cori Farris, shows the skyrocketing use of vouchers by non-low-income families in the district.

In the 2022-23 school year, 1 of every 3 families using a voucher in Berea were wealthy.

The next school year, the first year of universal vouchers in Ohio, the percentage and number of wealthy families in Berea using a voucher skyrocketed to 78 percent.

This year, it went up again so that 88 percent, almost 9 of every 10 families taking a voucher in Berea, are not low-income.

In two school years, the number of wealthy families taking vouchers in Berea jumped from 51 to 602.

Berea School Board President Farris, who created the graphic, told cleveland.com this is an “abuse” of the program.

“It’s not the spirit in which the expanded vouchers were meant,” Farris said. “They were meant to offer alternatives to lower performing districts and for lower income families.”

Berea Superintendent Tracy Wheeler told cleveland.com she is not against school choice.

“But if there is going to be school choice, at a minimum put the same accountability on private and parochial schools,” Wheeler said.

The state audits the financial records of each public school, including Berea, each year, cleveland.com notes.

There is zero financial or academic accountability for the private school voucher program. Legislation introduced to increase oversight has been killed by pro-voucher lawmakers in the Ohio General Assembly.

Is your district part of the lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Find out how to join here.

Sincerely,

Vouchers Hurt Ohio