Ohio Budget Feeds School Vouchers
Courts to decide fate of Ohio voucher programs
$1 billion in education funding is at stake in a lawsuit about voucher programs in Ohio.
Cleveland.com reports on the suit, in which public school advocates are suing on equal protection grounds.
The 10th District Court of Appeals will hear the case, in which voucher advocates are appealing a lower court decision saying the vouchers violate the state’s Constitution.
No matter the outcome, the final decision will very likely be made by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The school districts and a group of public school families sued the state in 2022. Ohio offers five voucher programs, costing around $1 billion a year, from which families can get scholarship money.
The coalition representing public school districts says the voucher program violates the state constitution’s equal protection provisions by providing more funds for some students receiving vouchers than their public school peers.
In the 2023-2024 school year, students in Richmond Heights Local School District received $1,530 in state funding. Students in Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District received $2,600. That’s far less than what EdChoice students in grades K-8 received, $6,166, and high school students got, $8,408.
The districts argue this disparity is unjustified and discriminatory, and that public school students should not have to leave public education to receive equal treatment.
“The state must treat similarly-situated individuals equally, unless compelling or, at the very least, rational and legitimate reasons justify differential treatment. No valid reason—much less a compelling one—justifies allocating 3–4 times more in taxpayer dollars per student to private schools than to public schools,” the districts argue.