Public schools participating in a lawsuit against the state over vouchers say the most recent budget massively increased the EdChoice Scholarship Program.
AJ Calderone, superintendent of LaBrae Local Schools in Trumbull County, criticized recent actions by the legislature at a Tuesday press conference. Calderone is part of a coalition of public schools suing the state over vouchers.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – While the Ohio General Assembly has continued to phase in a six-year public school funding overhaul, its most recent budget bill has also massively expanded private school scholarships, a group of public school advocates who are suing the state over vouchers said Tuesday morning. Members of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding – the nonprofit comprised of some 250 school districts that is behind the lawsuit – said at a Tuesday morning press conference that the state has the cash to fully fund the so-called Fair School Funding Plan, which is the school funding overhaul. They said the state doesn’t need to fund it in phases. The architects of the overhaul, made up of bipartisan lawmakers and school district funding experts, designed the plan to be incrementally funded over six years. The General Assembly funded the first two years and directed funds in the state’s two-year budget bill that passed in late June to pay for years three and four. The Fair School Funding Plan, when fully funded, will cost at least $2 billion more a year above 2018 education spending levels, which were about $8 billion.of the state’s largest voucher program, EdChoice Scholarships, from $5,500 per student in grades K-8 and $7,500 for grades 9-12, to $6,165 for students in grades K-8 and $8,407 for students in grades 9-12. “The tax dollars going to private school vouchers come from the same line item in the budget that funds public schools,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association. “A dollar more for private school vouchers is a dollar less for public schools. Ask yourself why doesn’t the legislature and governor create a separate line item in the budget for private school vouchers. The answer is because it would show a grossly disproportionate amount of money going to private school vouchers to educate a small percentage of Ohio students.” Family income eligibility for vouchers also increased in the recent budget bill from 250% of the Federal Poverty Level, or $69,375 for a family of four, to up to 450%, or $135,000 for a family of four. Families at the upper end of the income eligibility range won’t get full vouchers, according to the budget, but a percentage of the full amount. For instance, families at 450% of the poverty level will be eligible for 10% of the voucher’s value, which would be roughly $840, DiMauro said.The coalition of school districts – including several from Northeast Ohio, such as Cleveland Heights-University Heights City Schools – filed suit Jan. 4, 2022 against Ohio over the EdChoice scholarships, which around 55,000 students received last year either based on living in the boundaries of low-performing schools or based on household income. The coalition isn’t focused on whether public money can go to religious schools – the U.S. Supreme Court has considered that question and concluded it is generally constitutional – but about how the millions of dollars sent to private schools over the years has hurt public schools. They say it’s unconstitutional because Ohio’s constitution states that the General Assembly must provide a system of “The case is in the courtroom of Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page, who has scheduled the trial to begin Nov. 4, 2024. With appeals by both sides, the case is expected to take years, much like the DeRolph v. Ohio case in the 1990s and early 2000s, which challenged the inequities in the public school funding scheme, and found it unconstitutional. The Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding was behind that lawsuit, too.
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