Vouchers: The impact on local schools and taxpayers

August 13, 2024

We know Vouchers Hurt Ohio and a recent spate of newspaper articles across the state underscore the devastating financial impact giving wealthy families a refund or rebate for tuition has upon our public schools, our public school children and the local taxpayers that support them.

In Columbus, the city school administrators are concerned that they do not have enough bus drivers to transport students to and from their school buildings.

From the Columbus Dispatch story here.

“Board Member Jennifer Adair said she wanted to remind the public that the district’s transportation operation is one of the “largest logistic operations in the country” and that the district is also required by law to bus charter and other nonpublic students, even outside of Franklin County. A spokesperson said the district will use transportation vendors to bus over 8,000 charter and nonpublic students for the upcoming school year.”

Columbus, like all public schools in Ohio, has been shortchanged in state support because pro-voucher lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine has acknowledged not fully funding the formula to pay for public schools.

At the same time, the voucher program is uncapped, meaning there is no limit to spending on the universal voucher program that even billionaires and millionaires are eligible to receive.

And remember the money for private school 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.

The story is playing out everywhere. In Hilliard, local taxpayers are being asked to pass a levy to pay for school buildings and operations. Read the story here.

“We’ve been off the ballot for eight years, and the reality of the way the schools are funded in Ohio, basically our funding remains flat during that time, until voters approve an increase,” said Superintendent David Stewart.

Hilliard, like so many suburban schools in Ohio, has been hard hit by explosive growth in the number of vouchers in the district. But like so many suburban schools, Hilliard is not losing students to private schools. Families that already enrolled their children in private schools are taking advantage of a refund with a voucher and private school operators are raking in millions and millions of public tax dollars.

A story earlier this year indicated more than half of the levies on the March primary ballot failed in Ohio.

Residents, homeowners with and without children in public schools, are being ripped off by the voucher program.

The state is shifting the burden of paying for local schools back to homeowners while writing fat checks from the state treasury to private school operators. More than 90 percent are religious schools.

We believe this is unconstitutional.

We believe this is extremely harmful to our state, our local public schools that are open to all children, and to our communities.

Is your district part of our lawsuit? Check here.

If not, why not? Learn how to get involved here.