Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Statehouse Policy

Lame Duck Continues Despite Statehouse COVID-19 Outbreak

Still operating without a mask mandate as at least two lawmakers have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending committee hearings and session, it appears that things are still business as usual at the General Assembly this week. Two days of hearings are scheduled on dozens of bills as the House and Senate work to wrap up the 2019-2020 legislative session.

Ironically — as COVID keeps some lawmakers away from the building — the agenda once again are more bills to strip power from the Governor to control the pandemic. Republicans also seem intent on moving multiple bills that would loosen Ohio gun laws, including proposals to eliminate the Duty to Retreat in armed conflicts (also know as “Stand Your Ground”).

A detailed list of committee hearings we’re watching is provided below, but bills we are watching this week include:

  • Rollbacks of COVID-19 public health orders (SB374 and HB621), elimination of statewide mask mandate (SB387) and changes to testing data requirements (HB624)
  • HB6 repeal (HB798)
  • Stand Your Ground (HB796, SB383) and Concealed Carry (HB425) gun bills. … see “Statehouse Meetings and Events” below for a full rundown of the committee hearings and events we’ll be watching this week

The following bills were introduced since our last update. You can keep an eye on all the bills we’re tracking here.

New Legislation This Week

  • House Bill 798 (Hoops) – Nuclear Subsidies – to delay for one year the charges and payments for nuclear resource and renewable energy credits, and revise certain other laws, enacted by H.B. 6 of the 133rd General Assembly, to amend Power Siting Board law and other electric utility law, to prohibit certain restrictions on solar energy systems, and to declare an emergency.
  • House Bill 799 (Reineke, Lang) – Face Masks – to terminate certain provisions of the “Director’s Order for Retail and Business Compliance for Facial Coverings throughout the State of Ohio,” issued on November 13, 2020, and to declare an emergency.

Take Action to Keep Democracy Open

  1. Tell Senate Leader Obhof and House Speaker Cupp to make virtual testimony available as an option for policy experts and everyday Ohioans to safely participate in committee hearings at allontheline.org/OHTestimony
  2. Copy & share this tweet from your personal account calling for virtual testimony. Or write your own tweet sharing the link to take action at allontheline.org/OHTestimony:

    We want options for virtual testimony at the Statehouse to #KeepDemocracyOpen by making the process
    ✅ Healthy & Safe
    ✅ Transparent & Fair
    ✅ Accessible to all of us!
    ➡️ allontheline.org/OHTestimony

On the Agenda: COVID-19, Education Funding and More

Back from the Thanksgiving holiday (and without a mask mandate in the Statehouse), Ohio lawmakers have another packed week of committee hearings and floor votes as they attempt to wrap up the 2019-2020 legislative session.

On the agenda include more bills to strip power from the Governor to control the pandemic, Stand Your Ground, abortion restriction, school funding reforms, and the repeal of HB6.

A detailed list of committee hearings we’re watching is provided below, but bills we are watching this week include:

Full House Committee Schedule

Full Senate Committee Schedule

Ohio Channel Broadcast Schedule

New Legislation This Week

The following bills were introduced since our last update. You can keep an eye on all the bills we’re tracking here.

House Bill 796 (Koehler) – Stand Your Ground – to expand the locations at which a person has no duty to retreat before using force under both civil and criminal law.

Senate Bill 383 (Johnson) – Stand Your Ground – to enact the Ohio Duty to Retreat Act providing an expansion of the locations at which a person has no duty to retreat before using force under both civil and criminal law.

Senate Bill 387 (Burke) – Face Masks – to terminate certain provisions of the “Director’s Order for Retail and Business Compliance for Facial Coverings throughout the State of Ohio,” issued on November 13, 2020, and to declare an emergency.

Lame Duck Season Starts

Lame Duck: The perfect time to sign up for our Statehouse Update Newsletter

Today, the Statehouse will see a number of hearings as the 133rd General Assembly kicks off the first week of its always-interesting Lame Duck session. Lame Duck is a colloquial name for the period of time between the general election and the end of the year when a new legislative term starts.

For this two month stretch, term-limited lawmakers and those who lost their bids for reelection are effectively “lame ducks,” on the way out the door. It’s often a time when lawmakers rush to pass priority bills before time runs out at the end of a term, but also is when we tend to see some of the most extreme proposals enacted. Recent examples include restrictions on local minimum wage increases and the 6-week abortion ban.

Lame Duck requires close watch by statehouse activists.

Most of what is on the agenda this week is uncontroversial, as committees work to clear the deck of bills that have been introduced but not yet heard in committee.

Two proposals up for hearings, however, are priorities for legislative leadership and merit careful monitoring: a school funding overhaul in the House Finance Committee and a Senate bill to repeal House Bill 6, the bailout of failing nuclear plants, the 2019 passage of which is the subject of an FBI bribery investigation.

After this week, many anticipate more controversial bills will begin moving. One concern we hear from allies is that conservative lawmakers will enact a full abortion ban in the form of a “trigger law” — one that only takes effect or becomes “triggered” by a ruling of the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. In that case, the Ohio law would then take effect.

We will continue to send weekly updates about what’s on the Lame Duck agenda.

New Legislation This Week

The following bills were introduced since our last update. You can keep an eye on all the bills we’re tracking here.

House Bill 777 (Lang, Perales) – Alcohol Sales – to reinstate the authorized hours of operation for liquor permit premises that existed prior to the state of emergency declared in response to COVID-19 and to declare an emergency.

House Bill 783 (A. Miller) – Election Intimidation – to prohibit any person from intimidating, threatening, or coercing a person for the purpose of interfering with that person’s right to vote in an election.

House Bill 784 (Adams, Carruthers) – Law Enforcement – to increase penalties for certain assault, vandalism, and riot offenses, to allow peace officers to bring civil suits against persons participating in a riot, and to prohibit bias-motivated intimidation of first responders.

Senate Bill 374 (Obhof, Peterson) – Alcohol Sales – to reinstate the authorized hours of operation for liquor permit premises that existed prior to the state of emergency declared in response to COVID-19 and to declare an emergency.

Senate Bill 375 (Hoagland, Schafer) – County Fairs – to void the Director of Health’s July 30th order regarding county fairs and to declare an emergency.

Statehouse Meetings & Events

Tuesday, November 10

10:00 am – Senate Energy and Public Utilities – Informal hearing on HB772 (HB6 Repeal) and 2nd hearing (proponent) on SB346 (HB6 Repeal). Senate Finance Hearing Room or watch online. 

10:00 am – House Finance – 7th hearing (invited testimony, possible substitute) on HB305 (School Funding). Statehouse Room 313 or watch online.  

11:00 am – House State & Local Government – 4th hearing (all testimony, possible amendments & vote) on HB621 (Pandemic Business Closures). Statehouse Room 116 or watch online.  

12:30 pm – House Health – 1st hearing (sponsor) on HB316 (firearm “red flag” orders). Statehouse Room 313 or watch online.  

12:30 pm – House Criminal Justice – 1st hearing (sponsor) on SB3 (Drug Sentencing). Statehouse Room 121 or watch online. 

Get these updates weekly in your inbox when lawmakers are in session. Sign up now for Statehouse Update.

SB 89 Could Prevent Disaster For Ohio Public Schools

Without legislative action, Ohio public schools face a funding crisis as expanded eligibility for private school vouchers could drain local school districts of state funding necessary to operate.

The latest data from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission clearly shows that House-passed changes to the EdChoice voucher program (contained in amendments to Senate Bill 89) would offer a needed reprieve to children in public school districts across the state when compared to the status quo if nothing changes.

Lawmakers are currently debating two solutions to the voucher crisis, but the House plan, contained in Senate Bill 89, is preferred by most education groups.

That’s because Senate Bill 89 eliminates the performance-based EdChoice voucher which awards students a private school voucher if their local school building fails on even a single state report card measure. Recent changes to state report cards have driven a huge increase in the number of districts slated to lose students and funding as early as next year.

If left unchecked, 1,227 buildings – more than 1/3 of all Ohio public school buildings – would qualify for a voucher next year, potentially increasing the amount of money spent on the state’s 5 voucher programs to $500 million or more a year.

A bar graph that shows the drastic increase in spending on Ohio's 5 school voucher programs that siphon tax dollars from public schools to find private schools.
Bar graph illustrating how the historical cost of Ohio’s voucher programs has skyrocketed.

Senate Bill 89 would reduce that expansion in buildings losing funding and students to vouchers by significantly limiting eligibility for any new vouchers based on school building “performance” (as measured by state report cards).

Senate Bill 89 retains the state’s other, income-based version of the EdChoice voucher, which would be limited to families earning up to 300 percent of poverty. Under the plan, the state would begin directly funding vouchers, eliminating the transfer of taxpayer dollars meant for kids in local public schools to private schools.

Here is how it plays out for a few key State Senators who would need to vote to agree to House changes to Senate Bill 89 for it to become law:

Buildings At Risk of Voucher Funding Losses: Status Quo vs Senate Bill 89

The Problem
The Proposal
Senator2019-20 school year2020-21, if nothing changes (current law)If SB89 passes, 2020-21
Dolan
8
24
3
Hottinger
12
59
0
Kunze
4
32
2
Obhof
7
31
3
Peterson
18
62
6

*Please note that a school district is counted as part of the Senate District if the Senator represents 10% or more of the school district.

Click to view complete data

The impacts on many vulnerable lawmakers in an election year are stark.

If Senate Bill 89 were to become law, Franklin County Senator Stephanie Kunze would see the number of voucher-eligible buildings set to lose students and funding to private schools in the 2020-2021 school year go from 32 to just two. Similarly, Cuyahoga County’s Sen. Matt Dolan would see eligible buildings plunge from 24 to 3.

Even members of Senate leadership would see major benefits from the passage of Senate Bill 89.

State Sen. Jay Hottinger, in line to have 59 voucher-designated buildings in his senate district next year, would see that number drop to zero under Senate Bill 89, while State Sen. Bob Peterson would see his district’s 62 voucher-eligible buildings drop to 6. Even Senate President Larry Obhof would see his buildings drop from 31 to 3.

Statewide, under Senate Bill 89, the number of eligible buildings would drop from potentially 1,227 next school year to just 343.

An attached spreadsheet shows how Senate Bill 89 would address the voucher explosion in all Senate districts.

The analysis is clear: Senate Bill 89 is needed to address the immediate voucher crisis facing Ohio public school districts

10 Senators With A Voucher Problem: Where the impact of the voucher crisis will be hardest felt

The Ohio House and Senate are advancing two competing plans to address Ohio’s private school voucher explosion, but without a fix, some lawmakers will feel acute pain as their local schools see funding losses skyrocket.

Without action, the impacts on local school districts could be catastrophic.

Thanks to years of policy changes expanding eligibility for vouchers, the scope of the problem continues to grow, with local public schools set to lose $62 million more to private school vouchers this year alone. As the two plans to address the crisis are debated at the statehouse, it’s important to understand just how much of an issue this could become for lawmakers considering these changes.

Without action, the impacts on local school districts could be catastrophic. Next year the number of local school buildings where students would be eligible to take a voucher to attend private schools is set to skyrocket:

2019-20202020-2021
Public school buildings affected by voucher losses4831,221

Districts statewide will be affected, but some lawmakers see more impacts than others.

For example, State Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, would see the number of public school buildings in his district eligible to lose students to private school vouchers rise next school year by 53 from 11 to 64.

Likewise, state Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, would see the number of buildings losing students (and funding) to vouchers jump from 9 to 58. 

Top Ten Senate Districts Impacted By Rise In Voucher Eligibility:

Senator 2019-2020: Buildings eligible2020-2021: Buildings eligibleChange in number of eligible buildings
Tim Schaffer1164+53
Andrew Brenner90142+52
Tina Maharath97148+51
Jay Hottinger958+49
Bob Peterson1462+48
Frank Hoagland956+47
Terry Johnson549+44
Dave Burke1859+41
Rob McColley545+40
Theresa Gavarone4078+38

These exponential increases are thanks to a recent change in how the state assigns report card grades to school buildings that even the legislature’s top voucher proponent, State Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, has called “arbitrary.” In 2011, Huffman wanted to turn the entire EdChoice voucher program into an income-based voucher program, not unlike what House Speaker Larry Householder passed last week in House Bill 89.

“It should be based on need and ability to pay, not some arbitrary standard,” he said during his 2011 press conference about his House Bill 136 that would have created the statewide, income-based voucher program.

If nothing is done to fix this crisis over the next few weeks, Huffman’s Senate colleagues – many of whom represent rural districts – will have to explain to their constituents why they approved increasing the number of buildings eligible to lose state funding to private school vouchers by as much as 800 percent. 

Huffman is also in line to be the next Senate President.

Voucher Proponents Sue Ohio Over 60-Day Delay

Pro-voucher forces have sued the state over a meager 60-day deal to delay the initial sign-up period for taxpayer-funded vouchers to send students to private schools. 

Lawmakers moved the deadline from Feb. 1 to April 1. 

This recent lawsuit on behalf of families seeking vouchers and religious private schools was spurred by a meager 60-day delay which allows lawmakers to address significant problems with a program that has skyrocketed in taxpayer cost over the last few years.

First of all, let us be extremely clear. The Ohio Constitution guarantees zero right for families opting to send their students to private schools to receive a taxpayer subsidy to do so. 

However, there is a constitutional provision requiring that the state establish a system of common, public schools – a system that has yet to be fixed.

60 days vs. 10,200 days

Ohio’s school funding formula produces drastically different outcomes in poor districts versus wealthy districts. The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered four times that our system be fixed because the state relies too much on property taxes to equitably pay for the education of Ohio’s 1.7 million students.

Ohio’s school funding system is as unconstitutional today as it was more than 10,200 days ago when the DeRolph lawsuit was first filed. Sixty days doesn’t seem very long in comparison.

The delay spurring this recent lawsuit on behalf of families and religious private schools entailed a meager 60-days to address structural problems with a program that has skyrocketed in taxpayer cost over the last few years.

Competing priorities cause 60-day delay

What caused the 60-day delay? State Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, wants to fix education not by investing in the system for 90 percent of Ohio’s students as Ohio’s Constitution demands, but by removing hundreds of millions of dollars from that system and instead handing it out to families that make as much as $100,000 a year or more to subsidize their child’s private school education.

The stated intent of vouchers is to give an out to students in “failing” school districts. Huffman wants to give vouchers even to students who never attended the qualifying public school districts in the first place.

Because of the primary way the vouchers are funded – directly removing state money from traditional public school districts – vouchers leave many districts with substantially less state aid. This loss of funding forces districts to choose between more frequent and larger property tax levies or fewer opportunities for students in districts.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, doesn’t want the program to be based on the report card performance of school districts because everyone in the General Assembly agrees that the current state report card is deeply flawed.

Speaker Householder also does not want the money to be directly deducted from school districts’ state funding amounts. He wants the state to pay for vouchers directly.

A list of Ohio’s different school voucher types

While both sides could not agree on the future course of EdChoice performance-based vouchers before Saturday’s deadline (necessitating the delay), the fact that there are serious divisions among the Ohio Republican Caucuses suggests that changes may be soon to come.

Is a comprehensive fix for our broken school funding in sight?

In the background of this conversation about vouchers lingers the Cupp-Patterson education funding plan. If modified, Cupp-Patterson could provide the long-awaited fix to Ohio’s education finance system for the 90 percent of students attending our state’s public schools. 

Speaker Householder has made it very clear that fixing school funding is a top priority for him.

We shall see how this all shakes out.

Vouchers do not produce better outcomes for students

Meanwhile, let us not forget that a pro-voucher group – the Thomas B. Fordham Institute – found a few years ago that “the students who actually left the public schools—at least those on the margin of eligibility—perform worse on statewide tests.”

Recently, I compared how public school districts performed on state tests versus how private schools taking vouchers in those communities performed. 

In 8 of 10 cases, public school districts outperformed voucher schools by an average of 27 percentage points.

The 2 of 10 cases where the private school performed better was by a far more modest 9 percentage points (and that’s assuming every voucher provider with a mailing address is actually in that city, which we know is not true, but I wanted to be as generous as possible to the voucher schools).

Ohio is pouring more and more taxpayer money into a program that doesn’t appear to improve outcomes for our students but rather harms them.

Statehouse Preview: Make Or Break Time for Voucher Fix

This week, lawmakers are scrambling to pass legislation to slow down the problem of runaway private school vouchers that are draining millions of dollars from our public schools as a result of misguided policy changes expanding the school choice program. The problem — and a potential legislative fix that is under discussion — are explained well in this article in the Marion Star.

On the Innovation Ohio blog, Education Policy Fellow, Stephen Dyer explains in four charts how Ohio’s voucher problem got to where it is today and why, even with a short-term fix, it remains out of control.

The most likely scenario for a legislative patch is a bill already passed by the House will be amended in a Senate committee as early as today, and quickly move to the Senate floor. If it passes, the House must then vote to concur with Senate changes. The bill also requires a legislative supermajority in order to take effect immediately rather than in the normal 90 days. 

This all needs to happen before Friday in order to prevent another round of funding losses to hit public school districts. 


Elsewhere in the Statehouse, House leaders scheduled–and later postponed–a committee hearing featuring testimony on the House version of the Ohio Fairness Act (HB369), prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ohio still has no anti-discrimination law on the books. The new hearing date is now planned for February 4.

Also this week, two House proposals to weaken Ohio’s gun safety laws (HB425 and HB381) are getting sponsor testimony in committee. See below for schedules.

New legislation

Below are the bills that were introduced last week that we’ll be keeping an eye on in the coming months:

>> You can monitor the status of all the bills we are watching here.

>> Sign up for our weekly Statehouse Preview newsletter for even more insight on what’s happening on Capitol Square this week.

Ohio’s School Voucher Crisis in 4 Charts

The number of Ohio’s voucher eligible school buildings has exploded

The above chart shows just how quickly and systemically the numbers of voucher eligible buildings have exploded in only two years.

For nearly all of the 20 plus years of the voucher program, approximately 200 or so buildings were eligible.

These pie charts illustrate how many school districts will be coping with state funding losses to private schools if lawmakers don’t address this runaway train.

The number of eligible buildings has more than quintupled in just two years and lawmakers are now scrambling to address the voucher explosion.

Rural school districts will be among the hardest hit

One of the myths about vouchers is that it’s only an issue in major urban districts like Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

In reality, the largest percentage increase in voucher losses occurred in poor rural and suburban school districts. These skyrocketing totals have almost been exclusively driven by the increased losses to the EdChoice program — increases the legislature is trying to curb by Saturday.

Unless lawmakers address the issue, the EdChoice voucher expansion will continue to drive up the cost of the voucher program, exponentially.

The growth of Ohio’s school voucher program had been steadily rising, but now it’s growing exponentially, largely because of the explosion in the EdChoice vouchers. The slope of this trendline is frightening for many public school districts.

For years, our Education Policy Team has been ringing alarm bells about the compounding growth of private school vouchers, especially since 2010. Here is a report we wrote in 2017 where we raised concerns about the growth and efficacy of the voucher program.

We wrote another report this year where we warned that this last budget passed in 2019 would be eventually dubbed the “Voucher Budget.”

Innovation Ohio will continue monitoring the situation, which we hope will fix the short- and long-term issues with the voucher program.

Ohio’s School Voucher Explosion and 5 Potential Solutions

Well, that was fast. 

In late November, we at Innovation Ohio noticed there was a startling increase in the amount of taxpayer money being transferred from school districts to private, mostly religious schools.

In fact, it was an explosion — $47 million since the end of last school year and $57 million between November 2018 and November 2019 – a more than 20%, November-to-November increase.

We also noticed that many school districts losing sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to private schools this school year lost zero dollars to them only two years ago.

Our post led to a series of newspaper and other media reports demonstrating the issue throughout the state. It even forced Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to say that his top legislative priority this year is to fix the voucher issue.

But what is this voucher issue, and why has it exploded so recently?

The answer is simple: the state report card and money. 

Let’s take each issue in turn.

Problem 1 – The State’s Report Card

While there are several voucher programs in Ohio (for more detail on them, check out our report from a couple of years ago), the one that’s exploded is the EdChoice voucher transfer program. This program has been around since 2005 and it takes state money originally designated for a traditional, public school district and instead transfers that money to a private, most often religious school.

Which Ohio school districts are eligible for the EdChoice voucher program? Well, it’s complicated. 

Generally, the worst-performing districts in the state on the report card, as well as any child who would attend a building that has received bad marks on the state report card would be eligible for the EdChoice voucher program. Thus, a student who would otherwise attend a poor-performing school building in a well-performing school district would be eligible to receive a public subsidy to attend a private, most often religious school.

Ten years ago, the group of schools and districts eligible for EdChoice were mostly concentrated in Ohio’s urban areas, with only about 30 or so of Ohio’s 613 districts losing at least some of their state funding to private, parochial schools.

But then the state started to use Common Core tests — tests that ended up being changed several times over the course of a few years.

Common Core tests were changed several times over the course of only a few years, prompting the legislature to provide a “safe harbor” period allowing school districts to adjust to the evolving changes.

The “safe harbor” was implemented to prevent mass exodus via the voucher program of students headed to private schools on taxpayer subsidies meant for public school districts due to test changes and not actual student performance.

That safe harbor provision ended last school year, yet district and building grades in Ohio have remained artificially low. 

A bar chart illustrating how letter grades per school district have declined erratically during the period of time where Common Core was being changed year-to-year (2012-2019)
Letter grades per district have declined erratically during the period of time where Common Core was being changed year-to-year.

As the data trends suggest, poor letter grades on the state’s report card are much more likely today than they were under previous report card iterations.

In addition, as of the 2019 state budget, if districts received failing grades in only one of several report card categories, they’re eligible to lose state funding to vouchers. 

The grades earned need only be failing in one of the categories for 2 of 3 years between the 2014-2015, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years. 

Yes, you read that correctly. 

The years in question are nonconsecutive. That is the state’s policy.

Under the new measurements, there are now more than 1,200 school buildings that will qualify for vouchers next year, and 512 of 613 Ohio school districts will lose state funding to the EdChoice voucher.

As the data trends suggest, poor letter grades on the state’s report card are much more likely today than they were under previous report card iterations.

In addition, as of the 2019 state budget, if districts received failing grades in only one of several report card categories, they’re eligible to lose state funding to vouchers.

The grades earned need only be failing in one of the categories for 2 of 3 years between the 2014-2015, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years.

Yes, you read that correctly. The years in question are nonconsecutive.

That is the state’s policy.

Under the new measurements, there are now more than 1,200 school buildings that will qualify for vouchers next year, and 512 of 613 Ohio school districts will lose state funding to the EdChoice voucher.

Under the new measurements, there are now more than 1,200 school buildings that will qualify for vouchers next year, and 512 of 613 Ohio school districts will lose state funding to the EdChoice voucher.

Problem #2 – Way more money diverted to vouchers

In addition to expanding the universe of eligible voucher students, state lawmakers have steadily increased the amount of taxpayer money diverted into the voucher program, away from public schools for each voucher recipient. 

Today, for high school students, it is the same amount of money per pupil as the base aid amount the state’s school funding formula provides for a public school student. That amount used to be far less – a key point for why the U.S. Supreme Court determined Ohio’s voucher system to be constitutional in 2002.

Now that voucher funding per pupil is on par with public school funding for high schools (it’s about $1,500 less for elementary school students), more private schools are opening their doors to these public subsidies, further draining funds from our public school districts.

 It used to be that, generally, the dollar amount of vouchers were worth less than those students would have received to attend the local public school district. 

Now that the voucher transfer is so much more, in many more instances, the amount going to the voucher is actually greater than the amount of funding the state would have sent the district for the same student. Thus, significantly more local revenue is subsidizing the state funding loss – along the lines of what has been happening with charter schools for years.

These changes are forcing districts to go to the ballot for new money levies more frequently and at higher levels.

Through state policymaking, pro-voucher proponents have significantly expanded the universe of potential voucher recipients to encompass nearly 1/3 of all school buildings in the state. 

By increasing the funding that follows students who opt to take advantage of the voucher program, the state has hugely expanded the universe of potential schools willing to accept vouchers for these students.

The result? Vouchers have exploded.

A bar chart showing the drastic increase in voucher-eligible school buildings in Ohio over the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 school years. The number has increased from around 200 in 18-19 to around 1200 in 20-21.
The number of school buildings in Ohio whose students are eligible for the EdChoice voucher program has exploded this year.

Now what?

Many public school advocates are effectively pushing back against the expansion of vouchers.

One event will be held next week in Toledo. I will participate in this event as Innovation Ohio’s Education Policy Fellow.

These and other events have forced the Speaker’s hand.

There are many ways to fix this. Here are a few:

  1. Limit the vouchers to only students who have been enrolled in the school building or district that’s eligible for the voucher for more than 180 days. It’s tough to “fail” a student if that student never attends the district or building

  2. In order to be designated a voucher-eligible school or district, you have to receive failing grades in at least 2 (rather than 1) report card categories for three consecutive years. Additionally, limit it to buildings in districts with overall report card grades of C or below. This is the standard for charter school closure. It shouldn’t be easier to get a voucher than it is to close ECOT.

  3. Reduce the amount of funding for the vouchers to something approaching the ratio of the original program considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ohio is inviting legal challenges by granting private, mostly religious schools essentially the same base aid amount as a public school student, especially given that the state already pays to bus many of these students to the private school.

  4. Add financial accountability to the taxpayer dollars going to the private, mostly religious schools. One of the real issues with now more than $330 million going to private schools is none of that money is audited. We have no idea how it’s being spent. One of the checks we had on the privately run, publicly funded charter school sector was the public auditing of the money they received, which led to the uncovering of many incidents of taxpayer money being misspent.

  5. Directly fund all EdChoice voucher students from the state. The state already does this through the EdChoice expansion program (where any family of 4 making about $100,000 or less can receive a voucher, regardless of school performance, but that’s another story). Eliminating the deduction will also all but eliminate the local revenue-subsidizing-vouchers problem, and it will reduce the angst many district leaders have when they see on their state funding reports that they are slated to receive a certain level of funding, but get much less because the vouchers take a bunch off the top.

These are just a few of the ways to respond to this crisis that’s hammering many districts.

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